Iranian president declares end of Islamic State
Source: Reuters
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared the end of Islamic State on Tuesday in an address broadcast live on state TV.
A senior commander of Irans Revolutionary Guards, Major General Qassem Soleimani, also declared the end of Islamic State in a message sent to the countrys supreme leader Tuesday which was published on Sepah News, the news site of the Guards.
Videos and pictures of Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force, the branch of the Guards responsible for operations outside of Irans borders, at frontline positions in battles against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been posted frequently by Iranian media in recent years.
Last week, Iranian media published pictures of Soleimani at Albu Kamal in eastern Syria, a town which Soleimani said Tuesday was the last territory retaken from Islamic State control in the region.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-rouhani-islamic-state/iranian-president-declares-end-of-islamic-state-idUSKBN1DL0J5
JI7
(89,239 posts)applegrove
(118,462 posts)RDANGELO
(3,432 posts)Iran is an Islamic state.
BeyondGeography
(39,341 posts)since one of their main goals was exterminating Shia. But yeah, there is some irony as many Iranians would actually prefer a secular, Mossadegh-style democracy to an Islamic Republic.
LeftInTX
(25,100 posts)Reuters could have done a better job of translating...
jmowreader
(50,528 posts)Someone checked with the Islamic State leadership to make sure they were going to disband, correct? If not, we're looking at either...
or
muriel_volestrangler
(101,262 posts)I thought he was saying he was taking the "Islamic" out of the state of Iran, until I read on. Which would have basically been a coup.
BumRushDaShow
(128,372 posts)and the declaration could also be a shot across the bow of Saudi, which is quickly re-configuring itself within the kingdom power structure (where many believe they supported ISIL).
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,488 posts)Because he or Putin didn't proclaim it first.
ISIS actually will be with us for a long time in fragmented form, but I take this announcement to mean as an active territorial occupation in their region.
Wolf Frankula
(3,598 posts)in the name of 'regime change'. They always do. We'll see another funnymentalist Muslim outfit in a little while.
Wolf