Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
1
Report for
Tuesday,
October 25, 2016 Aban 4, 1395
Highlights, Page 2 News Briefs, Page 3
Other Stories, Page 3
Iran’s new challenge: The Islamic State in Persia? Page 5 Why US changed position on Turkey’s participation
in Mosul liberation operation. Page 8
Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
2 Highlights
Though Iran has announced that it has killed the Islamic State’s “emir” in the country, it continues to face serious security threats from a variety of militants.
(See Page 5)
“What factors have changed the United States’ position on the participation of Turkish military forces in Iraq’s operation?”. (See Page 8)
Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
3
News Briefs
* Mardom Salari newspaper reports that Tehran anti-drugs police have arrested three-member gang of drug smugglers in Tehran city’s Fallah area.
* Mardom Salari newspaper reports that police have confiscated 169 kilos of cannabis and opium and arrested six drug smugglers in two separate operations in Alborz Province.
* Mardom Salari newspaper reports that 35 persons have died in Mazandaran Province due to Aluminium phosphide poisoning in the first five months of current Iranian year [started March]. So far 35 persons in Gilan Province and 70 persons in Tehran Province in the first five months of current Iranian year [started March].
* Aftab News website reports that the damages due to car accidents in Iran amount to 7% of Iran’s total GNP. No figure is given.
* Mardom Salari newspaper reports that police have arrested a notorious criminal in Jask, Hormozgan Province. He was the leader of a five- member gang of thieves.
* Etemad newspaper reports that four persons died have died and three injured due to various car accidents across Iran.
* Etemad newspaper reports that 11 unidentified persons have attacked an ambulance in Bukan, West Azerbaijan Province, for unknown reasons.
* Mardom Salari newspaper reports that a young man has posted private photos of his 21-year-old wife online after their most latest heated arguments.
Other stories
Iran warns against Turkish intervention in Mosul operation
State-owned newspaper Iran reports that Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghassemi called Turkish involvement in the fight to retake Mosul “completely unacceptable.”
Ghassemi added that “any type of participation in the fight against terrorism in Iraq must occur with the coordination and permission of the Iraqi central government.”
In a related news, IRGC Quds Force Commander Maj.
Gen. Qassem Soleimani meets with family of Kurdish fighter in Iraq.
In another related news item, Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reports that gunfire breaks out near Iranian embassy in Ankara. Iranian state news reported that bystanders heard “more than 12 shots” near the Iranian embassy in Ankara.
Authorities have not disclosed details on the incident, although “informed sources” report that security forces fired upon a suspicious vehicle in the area.
New long-range radar unveiled
Tasnim News Agency reports that Defense Minister IRGC Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan announced the unveiling of the Meraj 4 and Matla ol Fajr 4 radars in Fars province.
Dehghan said that the Matla ol Fajr radar is capable of tracking and identifying targets in a range of 500 kilometers.
Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
4
In a military-related news item, Tasnim News Agency reports that a new commander appointed for Artesh naval region.
RDML Hossein Sharifi Nasb was appointed as the new commander for the 3rd Artesh Naval Region, which is currently based in the port of Konarak, Sistan and Baluchistan province.
Expediency Discernment Council member calls for election law reform
Jomhouri Eslami newspaper reports that Ghorbanali Dorri Najafabadi, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the Assembly of Experts, called for revisions in Iran’s election laws during an interview on October 22.
Dorri Najafabadi stated, “The election laws must be reformed in such a way that the lack of authenticating [candidates’]
qualifications by the Guardian Council reaches a minimum… It must be arranged so that there is enough time for reviewing documents, responding [to inquiries], and providing written answers.”
An overwhelming number of candidates registered for the spring 2016 parliamentary elections, straining the Guardian Council’s vetting process and spurring calls for reform.
Dorri Najafabadi added that he hopes Iranian elections will embody greater
“electoral ethics… so that what has been
done by the American presidential candidates, meaning Trump and Clinton, does not happen in our society.”
Iranian killed in Kirkuk given military funeral
Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reports that Ghassem Ghavidel was buried in Gilan province accompanied by an IRGC honor guard.
Four Iranian “technicians” were reported to have been killed in Kirkuk after ISIS fighters launched a counterattack in Kirkuk province on October 21.
In response, Iran’s Consul General in the Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, Saadollah Massoudian, told reporters that all Iranian technicians have been withdrawn from the city after the attack.
Iran ready to monitor US elections
Arman-e Emrooz newspaper reports that MP Gholam-Ali Jafarzadeh Eimen-Abadi says Tehran is ready to monitor the upcoming US Presidential elections, which is claimed by GOP candidate Donald Trump to be ‘rigged’.
“With the current electoral system in the US elections, the results can be widely rigged,” he noted, describing the year 2016 as a turning point in US history as Trump has revealed the systematic fraud in US electoral polls.
Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
5 Iran’s new challenge: The Islamic State in Persia?
Al-Monitor news website. Ali Hashemi. Ali Hashem is a journalist with a focus on Iran.
He is the former Tehran bureau chief for the Arab news network Al Mayadeen, and a former reporter for Al Jazeera and the BBC. He writes extensively on Iran for Al- Monitor and Al Mayadeen and his articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Sunday Times, the Huffington Post, The National and Tokyo’s Facta, among others.
When Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced on June 29, 2014, his self-styled caliphate, its borders were only about 20 miles from those of Iran. IS- controlled territory extended to the Iraqi border province of Diyala, posing a serious threat to Iranian national security. Tehran wanted to keep its borders far from the direct reverberations of the IS phenomenon, therefore hundreds of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) troops poured into Iraq to fight their first battle in Jalawla alongside Iraqi Kurdish forces and members of the Iraqi Badr Organization, which is known for its close ties to the Islamic Republic.
The fight to eliminate IS has continued in Iraq, with ever more Iranian involvement.
Yet it seems as if the group has managed to find its way into Iran. On several occasions this year, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry has announced that terrorist plots within the country’s borders have been foiled. Two major announcements were made in June and August revealing, according to Iranian security officials, plans to attack the capital Tehran and other cities.
On September 27, Pars News reported, citing unnamed sources, that security forces had killed the new leader of IS in Iran, code-named “Abu Aisha al-Kurdi.” The news website wrote, “Some time ago in one of the border cities of Kermanshah, an individual who was supposed to be announced as the emir of Daesh [IS] in Iran was killed in a complex and massive operation with the hard work of the unknown soldiers of the imam,” in a reference to Intelligence Ministry agents.
This was not the first time that an announcement had been made about Abu Aisha having been killed in Iran. Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi stated in a live program on Iranian state TV August 24, “In collaboration with special forces, we managed to kill Abu Aisha al-Kurdi, the commander of the [IS] brigade in Mosul, and arrest and take out nine of his accomplices,” noting that the operation had taken place in Kermanshah province. A week earlier, Iranian security forces announced that they
Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
6
had dismantled an “[IS]-affiliated terrorist cell in separate clashes in western Kermanshah province, killing four and arresting more than six.”
According to an Iranian security source who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity via a third party, IS was planning to infiltrate Iran from Iraq back in June.
He added, “One of the groups succeeded in entering Kermanshah province, while the second group was ambushed by the IRGC’s Najaf Ashraf [base] forces.” The Iranian source elaborated, “Abu Aisha is the deputy operations officer in [IS] and he was sent to Iran to plan terrorist attacks and build the structure of his group here. It’s true that he entered [the country], but he was under our watchful eye from the beginning, and we were able to track his moves and finally kill him and arrest others.”
It is worth mentioning that an IS member with the name Abu Aisha al-Kurdi was announced dead in Makhmour, southeast of Mosul, in April. A statement by IS said he was a suicide bomber and was killed while attacking Iraqi army posts. A report by Kurdish news network Rudaw stated that Abu Aisha’s real name was Fadel Badr and that he was in charge of the security affairs for IS. This was also reported by Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam news channel, which described him as “the Butcher of Daesh.” It is not clear whether the two Abu Aishas are the same individual.
The Iranian security source told Al-Monitor that Iran is facing a serious terrorist threat and that different military and security apparatuses in the country are closely coordinating their efforts to tackle this challenge, saying, “The Islamic Republic is countering terrorism regionally and within the country. The preventive tactics we are adopting are proving to be efficient. The most important thing is that people are cooperating with the authorities.”
The tactics the source referred to involves stopping people from joining IS. Alavi claimed in August that his country had “spotted and thwarted more than 1,500 young people who intended to join [IS].” This means that there are others who were not stopped from joining IS, and may soon become the next big security challenge facing Iran.
“These groups are being used by some desperate regional governments who want to destabilize Iran,” the Iranian security source said. “Iran’s main mandate has become combatting terrorism around the region, while the main target of others is spreading terror all over the globe. They are doing this to serve the agendas of their bosses.” The source elaborated, “Our expertise in combatting terrorism cannot be challenged. We
Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
7
gained experiences in Syria and Iraq, and also from our friends in Lebanon. But this alone isn’t enough to help us overcome such threats. It’s important to mention that without the help of local communities, this effort can’t be efficient.”
IS has so far only had a few known Iranian members. One of them was a suicide bomber with the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Irani. He blew himself up in Ramadi in May. Reza Niknejad is another Iranian who was openly linked to IS. The young Iranian-American allegedly traveled to Syria in 2015 after being recruited by a fellow high school student in Virginia. His fate is unclear.
While the threat from IS seems to be growing by the day, Iran is facing other security threats. Jaish al-Adl has for years been active on the country’s southeastern borders, in the Sunni-dominated Sistan and Baluchistan province. The group’s strength has been contained during the last few years by the killings and arrests of its leaders. Another Iranian concern stems from Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) militants, who have resumed their fight after a decades long dormancy and started causing havoc near the border with Iraq. Iranian officials blame the renewed violence on alleged Saudi support for these groups.
KDPI spokesman Loghman Ahmadi told Al-Monitor, “We do not have any relationship with Saudi Arabia on any level. Iran makes these accusation to portray the Kurdish struggle for freedom as orchestrated from outside and links it to its own enemies in order to not be held responsible for the oppression it subjects the Kurdish people to.” Yet, Ahmadi added, “It is however important to underline that we — like all nations of the world — see it as our right to have a relationship with any country we deem supportive of our struggle.”
Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
8 Why US changed position on Turkey’s
participation in Mosul liberation operation
Iran Review news website. Alireza Rahimi. Doctoral Degree in Political Science:
It was last December when Turkey deployed its military forces to Bashiqa military base north of the Iraqi city of Mosul after which the war of words and diplomatic tensions escalated between governments in Baghdad and Ankara over violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by Turkey. The tensions reached their peak as the time came for launching liberation operation of Mosul when the government of Turkey indicated its resolve to take part in that operation, prompting political and parliamentary officials as well as leaders of political parties in the two countries to take position on this issue.
Although up to a few days ago, American officials accompanied the Iraqi government in its rejection of participation by Turkish military in the operation to liberate Mosul, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has talked about an agreement reached to allow Turkey’s military to take part in the Mosul operation after meetings with Turkish officials. He noted that tensions between the two governments of Turkey and Iraq over the issue of Mosul can be done away with. Of course, Iraq’s government spokesman, Saad al-Hadithi, denied any agreement in this regard, adding that Ankara would play no part in the Mosul operation. Later on, during a speech addressed to the 9th session of the Supreme Council of the World Assembly of the Islamic Awakening in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi emphasized that Turkey is only fighting to protect its own interests and expand its sphere of influence, thus implying his opposition to Turkey’s part in the Mosul operation.
The question that must be raised here is “what factors have changed the United States’
position on the participation of Turkish military forces in Iraq’s operation?” The accurate answer to this question needs information about the inner layers of the US government and its affiliated think tanks. However, a review of what happened in Iraq and Syria during past weeks can help us come up with the following possibilities in this regard:
1. Creating balance between the United States’ relations with Turkey and Kurdish forces: Kurdish forces, especially the People’s Protection Units (YPG), are among the most important allies of the United States in Syria and in the war against Daesh and,
Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
9
therefore, maintaining the United States’ relations with these forces is essential to achieving Washington’s goals in Syria. Among those goals, one can mention recapturing the Syrian city of Raqqah from Daesh through help from these Kurdish forces, which can bolster the United States’ standing in Syria in the face of Russia.
However, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria, whose military arm is the YPG, has set recognition of a federal Kurdish government by the United States and participation of Kurds in future negotiations on the fate of Syria as conditions for Kurdish forces to help the United States in the Arab country. These conditions are among issues, which Turkey says will never accept and if realized, there would be intensified tension in relations between Ankara and Washington. Therefore, obtaining Turkey’s consent through giving Ankara the green light to take part in the Mosul operation can be some form of give and take in order to create a balance between demands of the United States’ allies, that is, Turkey and the Kurdish forces.
2. Preventing Turkey from getting too close to Russia: Turkey is the United States’
strategic ally in the Middle East region and is among important members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). However, developments, which took place during past months both inside Turkey (including the botched coup against the government of the Justice and Development Party) and outside the country (the alliance formed by the United States and Kurdish forces followed by the Kurdish fighters’ victories along Turkey’s border with Syria) stirred so much concern in Turkey that Ankara took a U-turn on Russia and tried to mend fences with Moscow.
As a result, Ankara put improvement of relations with Moscow, which had soured after Turkey’s military aircraft shot down a Russian bomber jet over Syria, on top of its political agenda and this development paved the way for overt and covert agreements between the two countries. Since preventing Turkey from getting too close to the United States’ international rival, that is, Russia, is of strategic importance to Washington, this can be part of the reason behind the United States’ change of policy on the participation of Turkey in the Mosul operation.
3. Assuring continued cooperation of Turkey with the US-led coalition: Turkey’s increasing disgruntlement with the United States’ policies in Syria and Iraq can prompt officials in Ankara to take obstructionist steps against the United States’ goals and finally lead to reduced cooperation of Turkey with the US-led coalition.
Therefore, maintaining that cooperation, especially with regard to the access by coalition forces to Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, could be another reason why the United States wants to appease Turkey.
Daily Report for Tuesday, October 25, 2016
1 0
Without a doubt, the change in the United States’ stance on the participation of Turkey’s military forces in the operation to liberate Mosul has no reason but an effort by Washington to protect its interests and goals in Syria and Iraq, in particular, and in the entire Middle East, in general. The government of Iraq, which has so far taken correct steps in this regard, must continue to remain vigilant in the face of such political maneuvers and put on top of its agenda the realization of the country’s national interests. In doing so, it must never give in to external pressures, which can be followed by untoward consequences. It goes without saying that protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as preventing widening of ethnic and religious gaps are among indispensable principles of all countries in their effort to protect their national interests.
