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According to reports, the Islamic State (ISIS) still has as many as 30,000 members almost equally divided between Syria and Iraq. They are supported by al-Qaeda Islamic terrorists. Al-Qaeda has gained in strength in some places now, thanks to Iranian support.
According to the Associated Press, a report prepared by United Nations experts presented to the Security Council stated that despite the defeat of ISIS, an Islamic terrorist organization in Iraq and most of Syria, it seems likely that a “secret copy” of the jihad group will remain in both countries, with supporters in Afghanistan, Libya, Southeast Asia and West Africa.
Experts from the United Nations said the global al-Qaeda network is much stronger than ISIS in some locations now, including Somalia, Yemen, and South Asia. Experts said that Al-Qaeda in Iran has become more capable. The Iranians work with al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, and they have more authority and are more effective than before, particularly with regards to events in Syria.
Iran joins former ISIS members to al-Qaeda
According to reports, Iran increased support for al-Qaeda reinforcements. Several documents and reports have revealed that Iran is working to bring together former ISIS members to build al-Qaeda by using its strategic and historical ties with the organization’s leaders.
A report published in the Sunday Times said that al-Qaeda today has rebuilt itself to the point where it can summon tens of thousands of jihadis, with the help of Iran. Tehran is trying to join former members of ISIS to al-Qaeda, coordinating with al-Qaeda military leaders who have traveled to Damascus to assemble all ranks of ISIS fighters and establish a new Al-Qaeda organization similar to the culture of its Islamic Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah militias.
Since taking control of the last strongholds of the ISIS organization in Syria and Iraq, Iran has been using its media machine to promote the claim that the defeat of the organization is due to Tehran, its allies and militias, and to erase the role of the US-led international coalition in defeating the jihadist organization. It has also tried to falsify the facts by confiscating remnants of ISIS after the defeat of the organization, and Iranian propaganda ignores the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its militias in the emergence of jihadist organizations as a result of suppressing the peaceful Syrian revolution and the release of jihadist groups feeding them. Iran lost more than 3,500 troops, according to semi-official statistics, and tens of billions of dollars as a result of their intervention to save Assad in 2012 in battles against the Syrian opposition.
Al-Qaeda leaders in Iran
Adrian Levy and Kathy Scott-Clarke, UK-based writers, have confirmed that the commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Qasim Soleimani, has played the most prominent role in managing the relationship with al-Qaeda, since he provided refuge for the family of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders after they fled Afghanistan in 2001. Qasim Soleimani built a residential complex at the heart of an Islamic Revolutionary Guards training camp in Tehran.
Iranian support and funding played an important role in reviving al Qaeda’s 400-strong organization when the 9/11 attacks were carried out and the Twin Towers were hit (according to FBI figures). The organization was confronted by the US invasion of Afghanistan, but it recovered with the advent of a new organization in 2013. According to reports, Qasem Soleimani used his relations with al-Qaeda in his maneuvers to play on all sides of the conflict to keep Iran at the forefront of possession of all papers of the jihadist groups. According to the report, among the evidence, unpublished notes and interviews with senior members of al-Qaeda and the bin Laden family show how Soleimani is mastering the relationship with the Sunni jihadist organization and ensuring that bin Laden is described by the official Iranian media as a jihadist martyr. Al-Qaeda’s military leaders had been stationed in Tehran until 2015, when Soleimani sent five of them to Damascus, including Mohammed al-Masri, with the task of contacting fighters and leaders of ISIS, to encourage them to split and unite al-Qaeda and fugitives, according to US intelligence reports. The reports confirmed that Masri was “the most experienced and capable operational planner among non-detainees in the United States or in any allied country.” The information adds that the coordination between al-Qaeda leaders and the fugitives is through the military commander of ISIS, Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian army colonel who entered into a major row with Ayman al-Zawahiri, who wanted to unify al-Qaeda and speak out in the fighting in Syria. Saif al-Adel ordered his fighters to wait until the end of the organization.
An ideological meeting
Experts believe that Iran’s relationship, as an jihadist Shiite religious regime, with jihadist Sunni organizations such as al-Qaeda, and even Tehran’s political and military ties with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, as well as with the Muslim Brotherhood, are not temporary, as some might imagine. The ideology of Khomeini’s regime is influenced by Sayyid Qutb, the ideologue of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood. Pro-Tehran Shiite groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the rest of the militias in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen have gotten their concept of jihad from this school, and they are therefore ideologically and historically well matched. Then there is the confluence of political interests. This is a lasting relationship.
Bin laden documents
The documents, “Abbottabad,” obtained by US forces from the hideout of the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, when he was killed in 2011 in Pakistan, and published by the CIA in November 2017, revealed details of part of Iran’s relationship with al-Qaeda.
Of the 470,000 documents obtained from bin Laden’s cache, 19 were devoted to this large archive of al-Qaeda’s high profile ties with the Iranian government. “One document showed that a senior al-Qaeda member confirmed in a letter that Iran was prepared to provide all that al-Qaeda needed, including funds and weapons, as well as training camps for Hezbollah in Lebanon, in return for the jihadist group attacking US interests in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf,” according to an investigation by Thomas Jocelyn and Bill Rajev of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, about 19 pages of al-Qaeda links to Iran from the Abbottabad documents. According to the documents, the Iranian intelligence services, in some cases, facilitated the issuance of visas for the elements of the al-Qaeda in charge of carrying out operations, and at the same time has housed other groups. “Iran’s intelligence services agreed to provide al-Qaeda operatives with visas and facilities and to harbor other members of al-Qaeda,” said another document, which was negotiated with Iran by Abu Hafs al-Mauritani, an influential al-Qaeda member, before the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Iran is fined
Last year, a US court in New York fined Iran $10.7 billion for collaborating with al-Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks and levied other fines of $21 billion for the families of American victims of bombings that were carried out by Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard cells.
According to the Associated Press, a report prepared by United Nations experts presented to the Security Council stated that despite the defeat of ISIS, an Islamic terrorist organization in Iraq and most of Syria, it seems likely that a “secret copy” of the jihad group will remain in both countries, with supporters in Afghanistan, Libya, Southeast Asia and West Africa.
Experts from the United Nations said the global al-Qaeda network is much stronger than ISIS in some locations now, including Somalia, Yemen, and South Asia. Experts said that Al-Qaeda in Iran has become more capable. The Iranians work with al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, and they have more authority and are more effective than before, particularly with regards to events in Syria.
Iran joins former ISIS members to al-Qaeda
According to reports, Iran increased support for al-Qaeda reinforcements. Several documents and reports have revealed that Iran is working to bring together former ISIS members to build al-Qaeda by using its strategic and historical ties with the organization’s leaders.
A report published in the Sunday Times said that al-Qaeda today has rebuilt itself to the point where it can summon tens of thousands of jihadis, with the help of Iran. Tehran is trying to join former members of ISIS to al-Qaeda, coordinating with al-Qaeda military leaders who have traveled to Damascus to assemble all ranks of ISIS fighters and establish a new Al-Qaeda organization similar to the culture of its Islamic Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah militias.
Since taking control of the last strongholds of the ISIS organization in Syria and Iraq, Iran has been using its media machine to promote the claim that the defeat of the organization is due to Tehran, its allies and militias, and to erase the role of the US-led international coalition in defeating the jihadist organization. It has also tried to falsify the facts by confiscating remnants of ISIS after the defeat of the organization, and Iranian propaganda ignores the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its militias in the emergence of jihadist organizations as a result of suppressing the peaceful Syrian revolution and the release of jihadist groups feeding them. Iran lost more than 3,500 troops, according to semi-official statistics, and tens of billions of dollars as a result of their intervention to save Assad in 2012 in battles against the Syrian opposition.
Al-Qaeda leaders in Iran
Adrian Levy and Kathy Scott-Clarke, UK-based writers, have confirmed that the commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Qasim Soleimani, has played the most prominent role in managing the relationship with al-Qaeda, since he provided refuge for the family of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders after they fled Afghanistan in 2001. Qasim Soleimani built a residential complex at the heart of an Islamic Revolutionary Guards training camp in Tehran.
Iranian support and funding played an important role in reviving al Qaeda’s 400-strong organization when the 9/11 attacks were carried out and the Twin Towers were hit (according to FBI figures). The organization was confronted by the US invasion of Afghanistan, but it recovered with the advent of a new organization in 2013. According to reports, Qasem Soleimani used his relations with al-Qaeda in his maneuvers to play on all sides of the conflict to keep Iran at the forefront of possession of all papers of the jihadist groups. According to the report, among the evidence, unpublished notes and interviews with senior members of al-Qaeda and the bin Laden family show how Soleimani is mastering the relationship with the Sunni jihadist organization and ensuring that bin Laden is described by the official Iranian media as a jihadist martyr. Al-Qaeda’s military leaders had been stationed in Tehran until 2015, when Soleimani sent five of them to Damascus, including Mohammed al-Masri, with the task of contacting fighters and leaders of ISIS, to encourage them to split and unite al-Qaeda and fugitives, according to US intelligence reports. The reports confirmed that Masri was “the most experienced and capable operational planner among non-detainees in the United States or in any allied country.” The information adds that the coordination between al-Qaeda leaders and the fugitives is through the military commander of ISIS, Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian army colonel who entered into a major row with Ayman al-Zawahiri, who wanted to unify al-Qaeda and speak out in the fighting in Syria. Saif al-Adel ordered his fighters to wait until the end of the organization.
An ideological meeting
Experts believe that Iran’s relationship, as an jihadist Shiite religious regime, with jihadist Sunni organizations such as al-Qaeda, and even Tehran’s political and military ties with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, as well as with the Muslim Brotherhood, are not temporary, as some might imagine. The ideology of Khomeini’s regime is influenced by Sayyid Qutb, the ideologue of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood. Pro-Tehran Shiite groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the rest of the militias in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen have gotten their concept of jihad from this school, and they are therefore ideologically and historically well matched. Then there is the confluence of political interests. This is a lasting relationship.
Bin laden documents
The documents, “Abbottabad,” obtained by US forces from the hideout of the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, when he was killed in 2011 in Pakistan, and published by the CIA in November 2017, revealed details of part of Iran’s relationship with al-Qaeda.
Of the 470,000 documents obtained from bin Laden’s cache, 19 were devoted to this large archive of al-Qaeda’s high profile ties with the Iranian government. “One document showed that a senior al-Qaeda member confirmed in a letter that Iran was prepared to provide all that al-Qaeda needed, including funds and weapons, as well as training camps for Hezbollah in Lebanon, in return for the jihadist group attacking US interests in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf,” according to an investigation by Thomas Jocelyn and Bill Rajev of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, about 19 pages of al-Qaeda links to Iran from the Abbottabad documents. According to the documents, the Iranian intelligence services, in some cases, facilitated the issuance of visas for the elements of the al-Qaeda in charge of carrying out operations, and at the same time has housed other groups. “Iran’s intelligence services agreed to provide al-Qaeda operatives with visas and facilities and to harbor other members of al-Qaeda,” said another document, which was negotiated with Iran by Abu Hafs al-Mauritani, an influential al-Qaeda member, before the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Iran is fined
Last year, a US court in New York fined Iran $10.7 billion for collaborating with al-Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks and levied other fines of $21 billion for the families of American victims of bombings that were carried out by Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard cells.
