Takfiri terrorists will be buried in Syria and Iraq: Senior Iran official

A high-ranking Iranian official says Takfiri terrorists will be buried in Syria and Iraq, where they have been engaging in terrorist activities over the past few years.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, said during a televised Wednesday interview that he believes Takfiri groups are headed toward annihilation.

“We are certain that we will bury the Takfiris in Syria and Iraq to save the Muslim world from this scourge,” he said.

Iran has sent military advisers to Syria and Iraq to provide assistance to the Arab countries in the fight against Takfiri extremists.

"Their defeat is certain because when you say Shias are apostates, Shafi'is, Hanbalis and Malikis are apostates, how many more believers remain among one-billion Muslims whom you want to put to the sword," Rezaei said.   

Shafi'i, Hanbali and Maliki are among the main schools of Islamic law in Sunni Islam. Daesh and other violent Takfiri groups follow an extremist branch of the Wahhabi ideology which is preached and promoted in Saudi Arabia. 

Rezaei said, "Most of the Takfiri atrocities have been committed in Mosul, Tikrit and the areas which are generally populated by Sunni Muslims and have seen their infrastructure destroyed." 

Iran-Saudi tensions

Rezaei said Saudi rulers have become the next regional regime overtly adversarial to Iran after the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who waged an eight-year war on the Islamic Republic in the 1980s.

“It is pretty obvious that it (Saudi Arabia) has been directed to stand against us on every issue,” he said.

“They stand against us in Syria, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf; and even in Hajj (in Mecca) where they are bound to guarantee the security of pilgrims, they look as if they had a mission to stand against Iran but we bear all this with patience and fortitude.”

“Everybody, even the Americans, know that Saudi Arabia does not have the ability to keep on like this, but it creates some problems for us anyway," the Iranian official added. 

"Through their unwise actions, they are committing crimes in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. Most recently, they have said they wanted to send ground troops with the Americans to Syria," Rezaei said. 

"Such actions will remain in the annals of history and the minds of the regional people," he said.

Rezaei said the Saudis "are making a big mistake which will put both themselves and us to trouble but will achieve nothing from it."

Riyadh severed diplomatic relations with Tehran on January 3 following attacks on vacant Saudi diplomatic perimeters in Tehran and Mashhad by angry protesters.

The attacks occurred during otherwise peaceful demonstrations in reaction to the Saudi execution of prominent cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Iran arrested some 100 people over the acts of transgression while officials strongly condemned the attacks.

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