Cooperation by Stealth: Iran’s Airstrikes against the Islamic State

In Diyala province in eastern Iraq, Iran is showing off its military might. In the past two months, Iranian media have showcased the activities of Ghasem Soleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards expeditionary Qods Force in Iraq. Now a short video has been released showing Iranian F-4 fighter jets attacking positions of the terrorist group that calls itself the Islamic State, or ISIS.

According to Persian-language media, Iran conducted these airstrikes to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces attempting to retake two Kurdish towns in eastern Iraq from Islamic State.

US Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon Press Secretary, has confirmed the Iranian airstrikes, but Iranian officials, including the Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham, deny that Iran coordinated its action with US-led coalition forces.

Afkham has denied coordination with coalition forces, and this denial is in line with the declared policies of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Yet in the past few months, Iran has not denied other significant courses of action, including providing Kurdish forces with military hardware and ammunition. “After the invasion of the terrorist group Islamic State, when we asked for ammunition, the first country which helped us was the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Masoud Barzani, the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, in a meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on August 26.

General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Aerospace Force, also admitted that Iran had taken part in several anti-Islamic State military operations. “Iran has helped Iraq in an advisory role and has quickly organized Iraqi militias,” he said in an interview with the Fars News Agency on September 24. “Were it not for Iran, Islamic State would have taken over Iraqi Kurdistan.” Iranian media have also published numerous reports about the role of General Soleimani in attacks against Islamic State-held territory, including the town of Amirli, which is about 100 km from the Iranian border, and is populated mostly by Iraq's Shia Turkoman ethnic minority.

What Iran is saying is quite simple: Iran cooperates with the government of Iraq and with Shia and Kurdish militias, but not with the US and the coalition it leads. Of course, the Islamic Republic and the United States are pursuing  the same goals in their military operations against Islamic State, but Iran’s representatives are quick to distance Iran from the accusation that it is cooperating with the US in Iraq. 

Its Own Reasons

At the same time, Iran has its own reasons for intervening militarily in Iraq. One is to protect Iraqi Shi’ites. Soon after the rapid advance of Islamic State into Iraq, President Hassan Rouhani declared that its attacks against Shia shrine cities in Iraq would be a “red line” that, if crossed, might cause Iran to intervene. 

Iran is especially keen to prevent the breakup of Iraq. If Iraq was to collapse, Iran would not only find a Sunni-dominated country on its border, but also an independent Iraqi Kurdistan that Iranian Kurds might wish to join or emulate.

What more often goes unmentioned is Iran’s strong suspicion that Sunni-dominated countries, especially Saudi Arabia, are secretly encouraging Islamic State. Iran’s leaders believe that Saudi Arabia wants Syria to fall to Sunni fighters, and Iraq to break up. Now Iran is fighting its main regional Muslim enemy in two countries.

In recent months there have been reports that Islamic State is drawing closer to Iran’s western borders. If its advance is successful, it could seriously threaten the security of a number of Iran’s western provinces, provide opportunities for the growth of like-minded groups inside Iran, and heighten the atmosphere of panic in the region.

If the security situation in Iraq worsens, Iran would lose economic opportunities there, and would not longer be able to influence the country to the degree it would like. Iran is determined to invest its might in fighting Islamic State.

And yet, when Rouhani became president, cooperation with the United States was part of his plan. Before Rouhani travelled to New York three months ago to attend the UN General Assembly meeting, media outlets and political figures close to his government characterized his visit as an important opportunity. In the words of Hassan Moussavi, a nuclear expert close to his administration, Rouhani’s supporters believed that Iran and the US needed to cooperate to secure their common interests in the region, and that this cooperation would help Iran reach a nuclear agreement with the US.

But on September 15, Khamenei put an end to these expectations. While some Iranian officials wanted to meet the US ambassador to Iraq to explore the possibility of cooperation against Islamic State, the Supreme Leader said, “I opposed it and told them that we would not cooperate with the Americans on this matter because their hands and their intentions are dirty.”

“Don’t say what you are doing; just do what you are doing,” goes an Iranian saying. This is what the Iranians are doing in Iraq. They cooperate with the United States, but they do not want to talk about it.