1,500 Iranians Discouraged from Joining ISIS: Minister

“We identified over 1,500 Iranian young men who intended to join the ISIS and prevented them from doing so…,” Alavi said on Friday, August 26, as reported by Fars.

The Iranian intelligence minister reiterated that his ministry will not allow the terrorist groups to engage in any kind of activity in Iran.

He underlined that Iran is fully monitoring the activities of the terrorist teams and prevents them from disrupting security in the country.

“Establishing security in the country is the most important responsibility of an Islamic Establishment,” Alavi said, referring to a quotation by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that said a society without security does not bring welfare and blessing for its people.

“When the Intelligence Ministry realizes that some people are about to join terrorist groups, it goes after them before they join, and persuade them that they are wrong,” he noted.

On Thursday, August 24, Alavi announced that Abu Hafs al-Baloushi, the ringleader of the separatist terrorist group Ansar al-Forqan, was killed by the Iranian security forces.

Abu Hafs al-Baloushi, whose ID card name was Hosham Azizi, was killed and his comrades were arrested in different parts of Iran, Alavi said.

He also said that the Saudi spy agency has created 12 terrorist cells each of them consisting of 10 members to foment insecurity in Iran, and said Riyadh gives the terrorists $500,000 for any operation in Iran, pays any of the terrorists $2,000 to $3,000 every month and provides the families of the killed terrorists with $10,000 in cash.