Iran tries to appeal to disenfranchised to curb ISIS defections

Facing a rising threat of terrorist attacks sponsored by Islamic State, Iran’s government is trying to improve relations with the country’s ethnic and religious minorities that have become a target for recruiting by the terrorist group.

Those populations, concentrated in far-flung provinces, have long been alienated politically and economically from the rest of Iran.

But since terrorist attacks on June 7 killed 12 people and injured scores more in Tehran, Iran’s leaders have made them the focus of counter-terrorism efforts.

Officials said four of the five terrorists who carried out those attacks — which targeted the parliament building and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — were Kurds from western Iran who had been recruited and radicalized by Islamic State.

Iran’s Shiite-dominated government began paying closer attention to the minority communities in 2014, when the Islamic State, which is made up of Sunni extremists, rose to prominence.

The Ministry of Intelligence started using social media to identify Islamic State suspects as President Hassan Rouhani tried to downplay religious differences, appointing a Sunni spiritual leader as his special assistant for ethnic and religious minorities to address underdevelopment in Sunni-majority areas.

In the wake of the June attacks, authorities have intensified their efforts, ramping up law enforcement patrols and intelligence gathering along Iran’s border region where many Iranian Sunnis and Kurds live in destitute conditions.

Officials also have been increasingly forthcoming with the public about the fight against Islamic State inside the country. Last month authorities announced the arrest of 27 suspected Islamic State members who they said were hiding weapons and planning attacks in religious centers. In response to Iran’s crackdown, the Islamic State has renewed calls for more bloodshed against Iran’s Shiite majority, which the group views as apostates who should be killed.