Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 06/2014

Salafism as a National Security Threat for Iran

Mehdi Khalaji

February 2014

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Abstract

Although Tehran worries about internal threats from Salafi jihadists, it may well cooperate with such groups if they attack Western interests. On February 8, Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), a Salafist armed group in Baluchistan, Iran, announced that it had taken five Iranian soldiers hostage. On December 5, the same group killed three members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In retaliation, the Iranian judiciary immediately executed sixteen imprisoned members of the group.