Iran confirms it carried out air strikes against Islamic State extremists in Iraq

A senior Iranian official confirmed on Friday his country had conducted air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) extremists in Iraq, saying the action was carried out at the request of the Baghdad government but was not coordinated with the US.

The deputy foreign minister, Ebrahim Rahimpour said the purpose of the strikes was “the defence of the interests of our friends in Iraq” who he defined as the Baghdad government and the Kurdish autonomous region in the north of the country, who are both fighting the Isis movement.

“In this matter, we did not have any coordination with the Americans. We have coordinated only with the Iraqi government,” Rahimpour told the Guardian, in an interview in London. “In general, every military operation to help the Iraqi government is according to their requests.

“We will not allow conditions in Iraq to descend to the level of Syria, which has been created by foreign players. And certainly our assistance [to Iraq] is stronger than our assistance to Syria, because they are nearer to us.”

Iranian officials initially denied carrying out air strikes inside Iraq despite video aired by Al Jazeera this week showing vintage US Phantom warplanes, of the kind the Iranian air force still uses, carrying out raids in Diyala province on 24 November, near the Iranian border.

The Pentagon later confirmed Iranian aircraft had been in action, but stressed there had been no coordination with US forces, which have carried out multiple air strikes against Isis targets in Iraq and Syria. The new American ambassador in Baghdad, Stuart Jones, said that, as a neighbour, Iran played an important role in the fight against Isis, adding the US left it the Iraqi government to ensure US and Iranian efforts did not duplicate each other or clash.

“Let’s face it,” Jones told the Associated Press. “Iran is an important neighbour to Iraq. There has to be cooperation between Iran and Iraq. The Iranians are talking to the Iraqi security forces and we’re talking to Iraqi security forces ... We’re relying on them to do the deconfliction.”

Rahimpour said Iran would act decisively to defend its borders to prevent any spillover of the fighting from Iraq, but said there were no signs at present that Isis had any intentions of entering the country. He said Iranian priorities were to help defend Baghdad and the Kurdish region.

“We are taking our security actions at the request of the Iraqi government. On the other hand, we are assisting the Kurds in the north, our friends over there, and although there is some differentiation between the Kurdish perspective and the Iraqi government, we can make an arrangement according to both their interests,” the deputy foreign minster said.

He repeated Tehran’s insistence it has only military advisers in Iraq, rather than ground troops. “This is only an advisory presence. There is no need to send Iranian troops to Iraq. There are sufficient Iraqi and Kurdish troops there,” Rahimpour said.

He added he did not know how many Iranian advisers were currently in Iraq. He was speaking after attending an international conference in London this week on support for the new government in Afghanistan.

Rahimpour said Isis would weaken as long as Bashar al-Assad’s government in Damascus was not further undermined. He accused Saudi Arabia and Turkey of seeking to establish Isis as an alternative government to the Assad regime, a longstanding Iranian ally. He also said western governments had realised their mistake in backing its regional allies’ policies in the region and were beginning to see the logic of the Iranian approach.