'Iran missile strike on Daesh legitimate self-defense'

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' ballistic missile strike at a Daesh-held Syrian town, which was conducted in retaliation for the recent twin terrorist attacks in Tehran, received massive media coverage around the world. The following is a synopsis of Press TV’s interview with ANSWER Coalition's Richard Becker, and Michael Lane, the founder of American Institute for Foreign Policy, about the message Tehran sent to the world by carrying out such an unprecedented attack.

Michael Lane maintains that by carrying such a surprise attack, Iran sought to send a warning that the country sees no boundaries when it comes to tracing and annihilating terrorist outfits.   

“This is an area in which I think most people can agree Iran was very legitimate in taking defensive action and sending a warning about the fact that the people of Iran and the territory of Iran is and should be and will be completely off limits to terrorists. And if terrorists violate that, then they are going to pay a heavy price,” Lane noted.

However, he noted that if Iran chooses to go further and carry out more operations in Syria, that could prove problematic for the country and the entire region as well.

“You haven’t seen any condemnation of that [Iran’s attack] because we believe that Iran did have the right to take that defensive action… At this point, this appears to be perfectly okay. [But] if it signifies a significant intensifying and escalation of Iran’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, then that opens up a whole new can of worms.”

The other panelist Richard Becker approved Lane’s comments, saying that Iran’s revengeful missile strike will send a message to terrorist groups and their sponsors that these kinds of attacks will not be tolerated.

"The fact that Iran responded in this way is not surprising," Becker said. "Iran has acted in self-defense and has not invaded other countries unlike the United States."

“But I think that this is a massage to supporters of Daesh and also al-Qaeda in the region, who are both really followers of the ideology that is centered in Saudi Arabia -- a country which is taking hostile steps, hostile moves and measures toward Iran with the backing of the United States,” the analyst underlined.

What the Iranian government wants to do at this point is to show that it has zero tolerance for such attacks and to send a warning message to other countries in the region which have been supporting terrorism, according to Becker.

On Sunday, the IRGC fired a barrage of ballistic missiles from its bases in western Iran which destroyed Daesh positions in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr and left scores of terrorists dead.

The strike was meant to retaliate the terror group’s June 7 twin attacks on Iran’s Parliament and the Mausoleum of the late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini.

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