TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The representative of the Iraqi Kurdistan region praised Iran’s role in the Arab country’s recent victories over the Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) terrorist group and said if it had not been for the Islamic Republic’s assistance, Iraq would have fallen to the hands of the terrorists.

Speaking at a forum titled “Iraq after Daesh” held in Tehran on Wednesday, Nazem Dabbagh pointed to the recent recapture of the northern city of Mosul from Daesh terrorists and said the terrorist group has been forced out of Mosul but it is not over yet.

“Daesh is not just a military issue but has become a phenomenon and ideology,” the Iraqi diplomat said.

He further pointed to Tehran’s support for Baghdad in the fight against the terror group, saying that if it had not been for Iran’s assistance, Iraq would have fallen to the hands of Daesh.

Daesh militants made swift advances in northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing swaths of northern Syria.

However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Seyed Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for the fight against the militants, blunted the edge of Daesh offensive and forced the terrorist group to withdraw from much of the areas it had occupied.

Iraqi military forces on July 29 captured the Mosul mosque at the heart of the northern city, which Daesh had declared its de facto capital.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the liberation of the site of the symbolic al-Nuri Mosque in Old Mosul as “the declaration of the end of the statelet of Daesh.”

Daesh stronghold in Syria’s Raqqa is also close to falling.