LATEST: Police Chief Shows Concern Over Insurgent Attacks in Southeast

The Supreme Leader has renewed the Iranian regime’s attack on the “hoax” of the US-led campaign in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State.

Ayatollah Khamenei told an audience on Monday, “If anyone fuels the fire in this regard, he or she will definitely be helping sinister America and Britain which are the creators of the Islamic State and Al Qa’eda.”

Khamenei asserted that assistance to the US would fuel sectarian violence: “Shias and Sunni shouldn’t help the enemy by desecrating their sanctities and provoking one another’s sentiments.”

He added that the enemies of Islam have always sought to drive a wedge between Shias and Sunnis to deflect their attention from the “real enemy” — a possible reference to Israel.

On Sunday, the Supreme Leader’s top aide, Ali Akbar Velayati, restated the regime’s condemnation of US intervention in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State.

Velayati, a former Foreign Minister, told reporters that Tehran would work with “sincere” opponents of the jihadists: “The Islamic Republic of Iran supports friendly countries, which are fighting terrorism and countering the Islamic State.”

Velayati said the US-led coalition was “fabricated” and was only established as a front for propaganda.

The Supreme Leader and other senior Iranian officials blocked the Rouhani Government’s cooperation with the US after the Islamic State’s offensive took much of western and northern Iraq in June. They have been scathing about the Americans, accusing them of creating the jihadist organization, even after US airstrikes began in Iraq on August 8.

Police Chief Shows Concern Over Insurgent Attacks in Southeast

Iran’s Police Chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam has shown the regime’s concern over recent deadly attacks on Iranian security forces in the southeast, possibly by the Sunni insurgency Jaish ul-Adl.

“Our borders should receive more attention as the threats around us are serious,” Ahmadi Moghaddam told reporters in Tehran on Sunday.

Last week, two attacks killed four Iranian border guards in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, where Jaish ul-Adl’s operations have slain dozens of security forces since last summer.

On Saturday, senior Iranian police officers en route to investigate the attacks were killed when their plane crashed near the provincial capital Zahedan.

See Iran Daily, Oct 12: Did Insurgents Down Police Plane in Southeast, Killing Senior Officers?

Fars News, citing an “informed source”, said the plane crashed because of “technical flaws”. The commander of Iran’s Border Guards insisted that there had been no “terrorist attack”.

Moghaddam turned on the Islamic Republic’s neighbors in his Sunday statement, “Terrorist groups rather enjoy excessive freedom of action and use Pakistan’s soil to hit a blow at Iran.”

He called for more investment in border control systems.