Iran threatens action against Pakistan-based terrorist group
Times News Agency: After India military response to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Iran is contemplating to take action against Pakistan for its terror proxies.
During the height of India-Pakistan conflict past week, the global media skipped notice that leaders in the Iranian government and armed forces have threatened to act against Pakistani terror groups since the country cannot act against them.
General Qassem Soleimani, the all powerful commander of the elite Quds Force, a unit of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) issued stern warnings to the Pakistani government and its military establishment.
“I have this question for the Pakistani government: where are you heading to? You have caused unrest along borders with all your neighbors and do you have any other neighbor left that you want to stir insecurity for,” Gen Soleimani was quoted as saying.
Like in Pulwama attack in India, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards accused ‘Pakistan’s security for of supporting the perpetrators of a suicide bombing that killed 27 troops on February 13.
Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, also warned Pakistan against supporting terror. “Pakistan should know that it should pay the cost for the Pakistani intelligence organization’s support for Jeish al-Zolm (as Jaish al-Adl is called in Iran) from now on and this price will no doubt be very heavy for them,” he said.
India and Iran have enhanced their counter-terrorism cooperation in recent years. This will top discussions between the two countries when the next round of foreign office consultation is scheduled. Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale has plans to travel to Iran over the weekend but the trip was postponed due to the India-Pakistan crisis.
Chairman of the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy commission Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh was also quoted as saying that Iran wanted to build a wall on its border with Pakistan, and promised Tehran would take action inside Pakistan if it was incapable of doing so to stop cross-border attacks into Iran.
Even the top aide of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, went on record to castigate Pakistan. This is significant because it is a sign that Iran’s supreme leader wants the message to go out to Pakistan.
Edited by Saleem Samad