Analysis of Iran's foreign policy against the terrorist group ISIS: 2018-2014

The widespread activities of the ISIS terrorist group in Iraq and Syria during 2018-2014 met with different reactions. The main purpose of this article is to study Iran's foreign policy towards ISIL in the form of a descriptive-analytical method and in the framework of the theory of threat balance. This raises the main question of what is the approach of Iran's foreign policy towards the ISIS group and what are the solutions and challenges. The findings of this study indicate that Iran's foreign policy towards ISIL is generally shaped by Iran's perception of the ISIL threat. Iran's perception of the ISIS threat has four main indicators: total power, geographical proximity, offensive power and offensive intentions. In this regard, Iran's foreign policy against ISIS has taken a security-oriented form, which has several features such as the active presence of military institutions in foreign policy and the emphasis on deterrence. At the same time, Iran's foreign policy toward ISIS faces challenges, including the internal problems and social divisions of the countries involved, the sabotage of regional actors, and the US strategy of creating proxy wars and coalitions against terrorism.