'Isis is over': Iranian president Hassan Rouhani declares end of group after military breakthrough

Isis has been “destroyed”, the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has declared, following a battle against the militant group near the Iraqi border.

“Today with God’s guidance and the resistance of people in the region we can say that this evil has either been lifted from the head of the people or has been reduced,” he said.

“Of course the remnants will continue but the foundation and roots have been destroyed.”

Major General Qassem Soleimani, a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, declared the end of Isis following an offensive against the group in the town of al-Bukamal.

The town was one of the last significant Syrian towns held by Isis, but appears to have been defeated by Iran-backed Shia militias.

Tehran said it was creating “arc of influence” from its borders to the Mediterranean.

Iranian militias have helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s strengthen his position in the country since 2014.

At least 1,000 Iranian fighters are thought to have died in the fighting.

“The defeat of the Israel-Arabian-western triangle is achieved with the completion of the corridor from Tehran to the Mediterranean,” Mashregh News, a newspaper loyal to the Revolutionary Guard, said, according to The Times.

“We now have to wait for a change of equilibrium in western Asia and the world.”

The Revolutionary Guards also thanked Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, for its “decisive” role in fighting Isis.

In Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader, said that it was ready to withdraw its troops from Iraq once the central government declares a decisive victory.

The comments come after the Arab League meeting in Cairo on Sunday in which Saudi Arabia called on the region to unite against Iran over its “destabilising” role in the Middle East.

Earlier in the month, the countries traded accusations over Yemen, with Riyadh saying a rebel missile attack “may amount to an act of war”.

Tehran accused Saudi Arabia of war crimes.

On Monday, a Saudi-led military coalition battling Tehran-backed rebels in Yemen said it reserved the “right to respond” to the missile attack on Riyadh at the weekend.

It called it a “blatant military aggression by the Iranian regime which may amount to an act of war”.

Today, Rouhani told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that Iran is not seeking to “dominate” the Middle East.

Earlier in the month, the Syrian military declared that Isis was “finished” after the town of Abu Kamal was liberated.

“The liberation of Abu Kamal is of great importance because it is a declaration of the fall of this group’s project in the region generally and the collapse of its supporters’ illusions to divide it, control large parts of the Syria-Iraq borders and secure supply routes between the two countries,” said army spokesman General Ali Mayhoub in a televised statement.