This month, the Islamic State successfully carried out its first attack on Iranian soil, resulting in 17 dead and some 50 injured. Iran is a top target for the Islamic State — and has been since the group rose to prominence in 2014. But Iranian security forces had effectively thwarted the threat through an extensive counterterror program. Iran took pride in keeping the fight against the Islamist militants outside its territory. The Washington Post reports in its article How Iran fights the Islamic State that the Islamic State views Shiite Muslims as apostates. It portrays Iran as a Shiite power threatening the “real” Muslim community — the Sunnis. Because of this — and the threat the group poses to Iran’s interests in the region — Tehran views the Islamic State as a national security threat. As a result, it placed “no limits” on resources to combat it both inside and outside its borders
To tackle the Islamic State, Iran developed an extensive counterterror program. Iran’s goal is to undermine the Islamic State’s spread, ideology and vision, while working to prevent attacks on Iranian soil or against Iranian citizens. The Iranian approach to countering the Islamic State is more hands-on than that of the U.S.-led coalition, because by virtue of proximity, Tehran feels the threat more acutely. Iran draws on its relatively strong and stable state, with its notoriously effective security services to implement its counterterror measures. Tehran targets the Islamic State directly to disrupt its operations. It sends advisers, military personnel and supplies and money to tackle the group in Syria and Iraq to avoid conflict within its own borders. It also conducts a messaging campaign to tackle the group’s ideology by highlighting unity among Muslims and signals its commitment to the fight by showcasing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) presence outside its borders. To lessen the sectarian aspect of the conflict — after all, Iran wants to lead all Muslims, not just the Shiite minority — Tehran engages with various political and religious groups fighting the Islamic State, including the Iraqi government and Army, Kurdish fighters and Sunni groups.
Domestically, Iran undertook a number of anti-radicalization measures, in coordination with the minority Sunni community to tackle the Islamic State’s effort to recruit inside Iran. While somewhat successful to begin with, in 2016, Iranian official admitted that the Islamic State had tapped into Iran’s Sunni minority for recruits. It carried out extensive intelligence operations to thwart planned attacks. In July, for example, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry successfully defused an Islamic State plan to conduct a large-scale terrorist attack across Tehran, involving 50 targets using more than 200 pounds of explosives.
By summer 2016, the Islamic State reportedly lost almost 50 percent of its territorial gains in Iraq. The attack will significantly boost the Islamic State morale, at a time where it is facing a losing battle in Iraq and retreating in Syria.
Hard-liners, recently defeated in a presidential election, will point to the attack as proof that President Hassan Rouhani’s focus on moderation doesn’t work. The attack will also spark calls for an expansion of efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, despite the lack of popularity of Iran’s efforts in Syria.
