[caption id="attachment_59283" align="alignright" width="180"] Foreign-backed militants operating in Syria (file photo)[/caption]
A senior Iranian lawmaker says Takfiri terrorist groups seek to undermine Muslim states and distort the image of Islam through conducting terrorist attacks.
By [conducting] these terrorist attacks, Takfiri groups seek to weaken the Islamic governments and present a distorted image of Islam in the worlds public opinion, said Abbass Ali Mansouri, who sits on the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, on Tuesday.
The Iranian lawmaker added that the Takfiri groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are the products of Israel and the US.
Also condemning the recent attack on a group of Iranian technicians in Iraq, Mansouri urged the Muslim countries and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take measures against the terrorist activities of the Takfiri groups.
On December 13, masked gunmen shot dead 20 Iranian and five Iraqi gas pipeline workers near the village of Balad Ruz, situated some 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
The victims were working on a pipeline projected to carry natural gas from Iran to its western neighbor when they came under attack.
Mansouri added, however, that the terrorist attacks by the Takfiri groups in Iraq would not undermine relations between Iran and Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has formed a special committee to probe the deadly incident.