TEHRAN -- The commander of the Iraqi Border Patrol says the country has finished the construction of over 100 observation towers along the borders of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq with Iran.
According to a statement from the Iraqi Border Patrol, the measure is part of the security agreement between Baghdad and Tehran to protect the borders against security threats and smuggling.
Back in March, during a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani in Baghdad, then-secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Shamkhani, and his Iraqi counterpart al-Araji signed a joint security cooperation document to curtail the activities of Kurdish militants.
The Islamic Republic had previously threatened to take action if Kurdish groups did not move their militants away from the Iranian borders in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
On September 19, Iraq announced that it had complied with the terms of the joint security pact with Iran and disarmed the opposition groups on the border.
Late in September, Iraqi border guards built “a 200-kilometer-long security barrier and installed more than 150 thermal cameras within the border with Iran,” state media reported, citing an interior ministry official.
Tehran has long accused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of harboring terrorist and anti-revolutionary elements and permitting them to use border areas as launchpads for attacks against Iran.