Tehran’s Help Crucial to Iraq’s Anti-Terror Fight

The Iraqi ambassador praised Iran for its continued support for the Arab country’s campaign against terrorism and said Baghdad cannot defeat its enemies without Tehran. “Iran is helping resolve problems facing the Islamic world, including Iraq, by providing defense and technological support,” Rajeh Saber Abboud al-Mousavi also said in a speech in Qom on Sunday, Tasnim News Agency reported. “For this reason, Iraq is always indebted to Iran.” Iraq is faced with the ongoing threat of terrorism, mainly posed by the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group. IS militants made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014 and captured large swaths of northern Syria. However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and volunteer forces, who rushed to take up arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for the fight against the militants, have managed to retake most of its land from IS control. Amid tensions in Iraq, Iran is known as the first country to help the Arab country and has always voiced support for Iraq’s solidarity, territorial integrity and prosperity.