Briefs - Jamestown

"Over the years, Iran has developed a significant and ruthless domestic counter-terrorism operation, in large part a legacy of the MEK’s activities in the 1980s. Following the attacks in the capital, Mahmoud Alav, Iran’s intelligence minister, was at pains to stress that this has largely been a successful operation, disrupting 25 terror cells in the months prior to the assault on the parliament building (YJC, June 11).

Even so, Iran might have done more to anticipate IS activities within its borders, especially given its role in conflicts abroad, its treatment of minorities at home and IS’ avowed anti-Shia ideology. The group appears to have been actively recruiting in Iran since 2014. It also appears to have received backing from Iranian Kurds, who are thought to have been involved in the Tehran attacks (al-Monitor, June 9). Added to this, the Iranian military has reported several instances over the last year in which it has killed supposed IS recruits in Kermanshah, a majority Sunni-Kurdish province in western Iran (al-Arabiya, August 16, 2016).

Unsurprisingly, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) insisted that Saudi Arabia must also be complicit, vowing in a statement that the “spilled blood of the innocent will not remain unavenged” (al-Jazeera, June 7). Some Iranian officials have extended this threat to the United States and Israel (FNA, June 20). Many see the attack in the light of international attempts to curb Iranian regional influence, coming as it does at a time when Saudi Arabia is punishing Qatar, at least in part, over its friendlier relations toward Tehran.

A more measured Iranian response, however, will be one that examines its own policies in the light of regional sectarianism, which is an issue that is much closer to home."