Iraqi Government Responsible to Stop Threats Posed to Iran From Kurdistan Region - FM

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian urged the neighboring Iraq to stop threats posed to Tehran from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

The top Iranian diplomat made the remark in a late Monday phone call with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein.

During the conversation, Amir Abdollahian described security as a key element both at regional level and in bilateral relations.

"The Islamic Republic does not expect to be threatened from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in view of the two countries' excellent relations," he said, adding, "The central government [in Iraq] is responsible to [stamp out] these [terrorist] measures."

Amir Abdollahian was referring to anti-Iran terrorists' occasional attempts at using the semi-autonomous region's territory to target the Iranian soil or to smuggle weapons into the country, which have been used in recent riots to target Iran's security forces.

In response to terrorist activities targeting Iran's security over the past years, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard [IRG] has now and then targeted terrorists' lairs in the Kurdistan region. The preemptive strikes have grown especially larger in scale since September 24.

The latest of the defensive operations took place earlier on Monday, with the IRG pounding the positions of terror groups operating near Iran’s western and northwestern borders in the Kurdistan region with multiple rocket launchers, precision-strike weapons, and drones.

The elite force subsequently issued a statement, likewise urging Baghdad and Erbil to meet their commitments toward Iran and take necessary measures to make the common border between the countries secure.

The IRG said the operation came “pursuant to continued inaction and some evident oversights, which were sometimes intentional, by officials of the northern Iraqi [Kurdistan] region in dealing with the activities of counterrevolutionary and anti-Iran terrorist and separatist groups that have carved out a safe haven in the [Iraqi Kurdistan] region to hatch plots and conduct attacks against the Iranian nation."

For his part, the Iraqi foreign minister said, "Baghdad will not allow its neighbors to be threatened from its soil."

Hussein also expressed satisfaction with the current level of the mutual relations, emphasizing that cooperation between Tehran and Baghdad will serve common security of both countries.