Iran Urges Iraq to Stop Threats Originating From Kurdistan

Date: 15 November 2022 - 21:35

News ID: ۱۰۹۰۴۲

TEHRAN - Iran’s Foreign

Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian has urged the neighboring Iraq to stop threats posed to Tehran from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remark in a phone call with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein.

During the conversation, the Iranian top diplomat 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,” Amir-Abdollahian said, adding, “The central government in Iraq is responsible to stamp out these terrorist measures.”

Iran’s top diplomat 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 Guards Corps (IRGC) 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 IRGC 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 IRGC 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.”

He 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.

IRGC Will Hit More

Terrorist Targets

The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Ground Force Brigadier General Muhammad Pakpour gave details of a new round of attacks on the positions of terrorist groups in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, saying his forces are cautious to prevent any collateral damage.

In remarks on Monday, Brigadier

General Mohammad Pakpour said the military attacks on the positions of terrorist and separatist groups based in northern Iraq earlier in the day involved the strongholds that were away from centers of population.

He said that the IRGC will definitely hit more positions of terrorists in the next operations, such as Tupuzabad village, where the terrorists have set up a camp.

He said a number of those locations had been targeted in an operation on September 28, but the terrorists returned to those sites and were stationed there again.

Today’s military strikes were carried out with missiles as well as suicide and combat drones, the general noted, adding that the positions of terrorists along the common border were also targeted in artillery attacks.

The commander said the new round of strikes took place after several warnings to the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and the Baghdad government officials about the need to expel and disarm the separatist groups based in northern Iraq.

Brigadier General Pakpour explained that the KRG-based terrorists use a tactic to settle in civilian areas, saying 50 days after the previous IRGC attacks that destroyed the strongholds of terrorists; they left those sites and started to settle in populated areas.

He noted that the strike followed detailed planning and targeted the positions of terrorists that were away from population.

The terrorists have taken shelter in the populated areas in order to use the ordinary people as human shields, the general stated, stressing that the IRGC is cautious to avoid hitting innocent people and families.