Iran says it has 6 armies outside its border, 2 in ‘Palestine’

There are six organized militias outside of Iran that share ideological tendencies and would defend Tehran against any threat, an Iranian general argued.

By Tobias Siegal, World Israel News

Iran has “six armies outside its borders that work for it,” a senior Iranian general said in an interview to the Iranian Mehr Agency earlier this week, leading the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement to issue a statement correcting his comments, Arab media reported.

Iranian Maj.-Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, a prominent commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said that Qasem Soleimani, who led the IRGC up until his assasination by U.S. forces in January last year, had established six organized militias operating outside of Iran’s borders.

According to Rashid, these include Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi movement in Yemen, Hashd al-Sha’bi in Iraq, Iranian militias in Syria, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas in what he referred to as “Palestine.”

All militias share ideological tendencies and would defend Iran against any threat, the Iranian general argued.

Rashid’s comments seemed to throw the Islamic Jihad movement off balance. On Wednesday, the group issued a statement that clarified that “our alliance with Iran is meant to strengthen our resistance to the Zionist movement.”

The Gaza-based terrorist group also noted that “All resistance forces, including Iran, stand in one front against the Zionist enemy [Israel] and its allies,” Turkish media outlet Yeni Safak reported.