Noor Dahri – Iran the godfather of ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the Middle East
The Great Middle East
Iran’s political role is more aggrieved in the Middle East than that of any other nation. Iran always used proxy groups to carry out terrorist activities against its opponent Arab countries. This is not hidden from anyone in the world. Iran is directly behind the genocide in Syria and Iraq. Iran’s military is openly taking part in deadly operation against the Syrian civilian population. In a current example, when Israel hit a Hezbollah caravan, an Iranian army general was killed in the strike. It demonstrated how clearly Iran is supporting terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas. That first fact is that Iran is not just working behind the scenes but is directly involved with ground operations and second fact shows that Iran is even more invested in being a terrorist State compared to other Middle Eastern countries.
Iran uses its proxy groups to destabilise the whole Middle East; for many decades, Iran has supported Palestinian terrorists against the country of Israel. For years, Iran has waged a propaganda war against the West and the state of Israel as well. Hypocritical Iran has two faces. On one hand, it supports Shi’a militias against the Sunni states and Israel. On the other hand, it supports Sunni states by providing military and financial assistance in relations to damage the Arab state with the heat of terrorism.
Al-Qaeda and ISIS are hardcore Sunni organisations, but are strongly supported by the terrorist state of Iran to create instability within the Sunni Muslim states. It has long term plan to occupy the entire region to pose direct threat to the West and as well as to the state of Israel.
According to The Clarion Project:
“Iran has been on the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism since 1984. Its 2013 Country Reports on Terrorism states that Iran is supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, the Syrian regime (also labelled a State Sponsor of Terrorism), Houthi rebels in Yemen, Shiite militants in Bahrain and Shiite militias in Iraq.”
Iran allowed AQ facilitators Muhsin al-Fadhli and Adel Radi Saq al-Wahabi al-Harbi to operate a core facilitation pipeline through Iran, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to Southern Asia and Syria. The 9/11 Commission reported that 8 to 10 of the 9/11 hijackers travelled through Iran between October 2000 and February 200l. They took advantage of an Iranian agreement to not stamp the passports of Al-Qaeda members going through the country. The travel of the hijackers appears to have been coordinated with Hezbollah, with one even boarding the same flight to Beirut as Hezbollah’s operations chief, Imad Mughniyah. Iran has different stages that support Al-Qaeda and ISIS in the Middle East with, many prominent Al-Qaeda leaders having sought shelter in Iran. According to some reports, Iran is being behind the terrorism in Pakistan, but these reports need to be proven officially.
Iran is more deeply tied with ISIS than any other country. Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has facilitated ISIS in Syria with the help of Iran and Hezbollah. ISIS has killed more anti-Syrian fighters than any other group in the region. It has also a silent support of Russia, even though Russia did not kill any single ISIS combatant; it destroyed the military capability of Free Syrian Army.
An intelligence report published in a South Front Analysis Intelligence Journal:
“Iran has entered their terrorists within Syrian refugees in the Europe through ISIS which is the prime security threat to the western financial hubs.”
It has been proved that Iranian operative Imad Mughniyeh was instrumental in the training, development and support of Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Qaeda – and thus its offshoot, the Islamic State.
Iran has played a very crucial role to involve the Arab states into the Yemen disaster because Iran wanted them to be busy in Yemen in relations to divert their attention from the Syrian ground. The International media is bombarding of their criticism at the Arab coalition for their cruel strike in Yemen and give less coverage to the Syrian issues. Iran has also created a great chaos in the Europe by sending their proxy groups in the hidden cover of ISIS that has started wars in the streets of western countries. Iran’s intel network is widely spread out in the west though Syrian Shia refugees. One prominent ISIS commander entered in the Europe with his 4oo militants disguised as Syrian refugees, it is claimed by the French newspaper.
According to Benjamin T. Decker, a geopolitical security analysist:
“This may seem surprising given that Iran, the stalwart of the Shi’a Crescent, is currently embroiled in a regional war against the Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq. However, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, described as one of the “largest and most dynamic intelligence agencies in the Middle East” by the Pentagon’s Irregular Warfare Support Program, has, over the past 20 years, provided financial, material, technological, and other support services to AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq). The man responsible for fostering this unexpected relationship was Imad Mughniyeh. While his name may not carry the same perceived significance as Osama bin Laden, Mughniyeh commanded a vast international terror network that included Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and a myriad of others, spanning over five continents.”
Do not forget that Imad Mughniyeh was the senior sniper in Yasser Arafat’s Force 17 and was a close advisor to Iran in the promotion of combined Jihad of Sunni and Shi’a terrorist organisations in the Middle East. He was the one who wanted closer ties between Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist organisations. Mughniyeh was a descendent of a Lebanese Palestinian Shi’a family. He was trained and financed by Iran and Hezbollah and was reported to be the head of security for Yasser Arafat. His family possessed a very high status in the pantheon of Lebanon’s Shi’a clans because of the clerical leadership of Sheikh Mohammad Jawad Mughniyeh, a cousin of Imad and a prominent Shi’a cleric in Lebanon in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The Palestinian Jihadism was introduced by the Shi’a state of Iran against the state of Israel. Iran has allocated a huge yearly budget for Palestinian terrorist organisations to wage a war against the Jewish State. Iran has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Some of that money pays rewards, providing monthly payments to the families of terrorists who blow themselves up in Israel’s markets and restaurants and kill as many civilian as they could take along with them. They also pay rewards to terrorists in jails and to their families. Terrorism against Israel is a very lucrative business for the both executioners’ families of those who die carrying out the acts out as well as the executioners who survive.
Iran is the main arms contributor to the Palestinian terrorist organisations. The Israeli Navy has caught many cargo ships full of arms heading towards the Gaza sea port. Just days before this article was written, Israeli commandos had seized an Iranian ship in the Red Sea. The ship carried a large cache of weapons bound for Hamas and Gaza strip. The ship, originating from Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port, was filled with weapons. Iran hid the booty in the belly of the ship where shipping containers held the deadly cargo in bags of cement marked ‘Made in Iran’. The ship contents also included deadly high range Syrian and Iranian made missiles. Had they been, delivered, it could have created a great disaster to the modern-day Israel.
In 2012, the United States Treasury Department exposed the extensive financial ties between Iran and al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the terrorist organization that evolved into ISIS. The generous support Iran afforded ISIS in its formative years was part of a broader alliance that the Islamic Republic established with al-Qaeda over a decade ago. According to an Israeli Intelligence report, “Al-Qaeda number two leader at that time Ayman al Zawahiri was not happy with the recent terrorist activities committed by the Abu- Musab al Zarqawi (AQ terrorist leader in Iraq) against the Shi’a population in Iraq. Israeli Intelligence agencies traced a letter written by Ayman al Zawahiri to Zarqawi where he showed his frustration and anger against Zarqawi’s activities.”
I few lines of the latter I quote here from the Israeli Intelligence report which was published in a book Gideon Spies authored by Gordon Thomas:
“……Such action is not acceptable to our Shi’a supporters and will do nothing to achieve our aims. …… Despite that, I say to you: we are in a battle and more than half of that battle is fought in the media. What you are doing is killing our Shi’a brothers and it will not help us win that battle….”.
Days later Musab al Zarqawi delivered his response with a suicide bombing in the capital of Jordan, massive explosions that damaged three hotels and a night club and killed 96 people and the majority of them were Arab Shi’a families.
Iran had provided a safe house to Al-Qaeda Leader Osama bin Laden’s heir, his favourite son and prominent Al-Qaeda leader, Sa’ad bin Laden. American and the Western agencies doubted that Osama bin Laden had actually died in the massive earthquake in Oct 2005 in Pakistan’s mountainous areas near the Afghan border when millions of tons of rock and rubble buried the entire area including small towns in the foothills of the Toba Kaker ranges.
On 18th October, 2005, The Israeli intelligence agents in Tehran, recorded a conversation between Bin Laden’s oldest son Sa’ad and his siblings Mohammad and Othman. The three men were living in secure compounds in the city suburbs from where they ran terrorist operations. In the conversation, Sa’ad reported he had spoken that day to his father who wanted his sons to know he was alive and well.
Iran’s hypocritical role of support and sustenance to Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan is no longer hidden. Taliban leaders seek refuge in Iran and Iran is also paying monthly wages to Taliban leaders.
According to a report published in a Track Persia think tank:
“When Abdullah, a Taliban commander in central Afghanistan needs more rifles and ammunition, he turns to the same people who pay his $850 a month salary and that sponsor was the Shi’a state of Iran.”
Iran continues to provide arms, ammunition, salaries, and training to the Afghan Taliban against the NATO forces in Iran. Iran’s role in Yemen and Syria is very well known now and I will write on this issue in my next article. Iran is a cancer in the world and it needs to be stopped immediately. Otherwise it will endanger the entire Middle East not just the state of Israel. Iran has already provided chemical weapons to ISIS and there is no doubt that Iran is most probably willing to hand over its nuclear weapons to the world’s most ruthless groups including ISIS, Iran’s perhaps strongest ally in the region.
