TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Muhammad Baqeri here on Monday warned that any change in the political geography of the region would create tensions across the Middle East.
The leadership in the Iraqi’s Kurdistan has set Sept. 25 as the date for a referendum on independence for Arbil as well as the oil-rich Kirkuk, Sinjar, Makhmour and Khanaqin, triggering fears of a fresh conflict in the region.
"Any geographical change in the region, given the differences between the Kurds and the central Iraqi government about Kirkuk and other areas, can start tensions and conflicts inside Iraq and this issue will never be confined to Iraq’s geographical expanse,” Baqeri told reporters.
Baqeri has just returned from a visit to Turkey last week, where the two sides expressed their strong opposition to any secessionist move in the region.
The two countries, he said, held "useful and complete” discussions about regional security, particularly in Syria and Iraq, and the role of Iran and Turkey in establishing peace and security in the two Arab countries.
Baqeri said Tehran and Ankara had a common stance that the political geography of regional countries, including Iraq, must never change and that any talks on differences that exist about Kurdistan’s independence and the role of the central government in Baghdad must be held based on the Iraqi constitution.
The Iraqi government has rejected the planned referendum as "unilateral" and unconstitutional. Turkey, Iran and Syria, which together with Iraq have sizable Kurdish communities, also oppose an independent Kurdistan.
In Ankara, Baqeri met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Turkish counterpart, General Hulusi Akar, and Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli.
It was the first visit by an Iranian chief of staff of the armed forces to Turkey after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
On Monday, President Erdogan said a joint operation with Iran against PKK terrorists and their affiliates was "always on the agenda.”
Turkey has battled the outlawed Kurdish group for decades, while the Iranian security forces have also fought its affiliate PJAK. Both groups have rear bases in neighboring Iraq.
"It is always on the agenda to carry out a joint operation with Iran against those terror organizations which pose a threat,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul before a trip to Jordan.
During the visit by General Baqeri, Iran made a "surprise proposal” to Ankara to launch a joint operation against militants in northern Iraq’s Kandil and Sinjar regions, the Turkish newspaper Turkiye reported on its front page on Monday.
Erdogan confirmed that the two countries’ military chiefs discussed how to work against terrorists.
"The work will continue because you know that the PKK terror organization has a foot in Iran,” he said.
"They always cause harm to Iran and to us. We work because we believe that if the two countries cooperate, we can reach a conclusion in a much shorter period of time,” he said.
"I hope that we will get a successful result there,” he added, without offering further details on the timing or scope of the operation.
The PKK is designated as a terror group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.
The Turkish army has been waging a relentless campaign in the last months to eradicate the PKK, and occasionally launches air raids against the group’s bases in northern Iraq.