'Takfiri Groups Pose Threat to All Muslims'
By Emad Askarieh
Iran supreme leader
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has warned that Takfiri groups pose a threat to all Muslims including Shias and Sunnis.
"If Takfiri groups are not confronted, they will inflict more damage and blows on the Muslim world," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Tehran on Monday.
The Leader also stated that certain countries are making efforts to deliberately cause insecurity along Iran-Pakistan common border.
"There are hands at work to create division between the two friendly and sincere people of Iran and Pakistan through different methods including causing insecurity along [the two countries'] long common border, but the great opportunity for the expansion of ties between the two countries should not be allowed to be missed," Ayatollah Khamenei stated.
The Leader emphasized that the US seeks to foment division between Iran and Pakistan, saying there are also other governments which are active in this regard.
Ayatollah Khamenei further pointed to the broad cultural and religious commonalities between the Iranian and Pakistani people and expressed regret over the decrease in the level of bilateral economic cooperation.
The Leader expressed hope that Tehran and Islamabad would further improve bilateral relations.
The Pakistani premier, for his part, expressed regret over the recent insecurity in the two countries' border areas, saying that the Pakistani government will spare no effort to counter elements behind such incidents and will welcome Iran's measures over the issue.
Sharif also pledged to make every effort to help restore the two countries' trade ties to its previous level of three billion dollars and even improve on that figure.
Heading a high-ranking delegation, Sharif arrived in Tehran on Sunday for an official two-day visit to hold talks with senior Iranian officials.
Meanwhile, the plots hatched by the West, the Zionist regime and their Arab allies against the region have failed due to the influence of the Iranian Supreme Leader's thoughts, on the regional nations, Ayatollah Khamenei's top military aide said.
"The (reason behind the) failure of the western, Arab and Zionist regime's strategies in the current developments in western Asia, specially Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, should be sought in the reflection of the leader's thoughts," senior Military Aide to the Iranian Supreme Leader Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said, addressing a forum in Tehran on Monday.
Noting that the defensive guidelines and measures of Ayatollah Khamenei which have empowered Iran in the region can be considered as international defensive strategies to defend the Islamic Ummah in the world, he said, "Iran's power guarantees the Persian Gulf's security and plays an influential role in the establishment of global security."
He stressed that Iran seeks establishment of justice-based peace in the world, and said, "The powerful Islamic Iran and its defensive power are at the service of defending the Islamic Ummah and the Muslim territories and Iran's defensive power relies on the Iranian nation's will and our country's geopolitical situation."
In relevant remarks in July, Vice-Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi-Fard said in a meeting with envoys of the Muslim countries in Tehran that "the Islamic Republic of Iran's defensive power belongs to all Muslim nations".
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