Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kana’ani urged Baghdad to counter the danger posed to his country from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, and further underlined that the Iranian Armed Forces will continue to adopt the necessary actions to maintain security and stability at Iran’s borders.
“We obviously expect the Iraqi government to act in line with the good neighborliness policy and within the framework of the bilateral security agreement. We also expect the officials in the Northern region in Iraq to act responsibly in this regard,” Kana’ani told reporters on Monday.
Iran did not take any unusual measures in its borders and the Iranian Armed Forces always acted in line with their intrinsic tasks to ensure security along the common borders and will continue the same path, he continued.
The spokesperson said that with respect to the groups that are present on the other side of the Iranian borders and consider themselves “refugees”, it should be noted that the nature of being a refugee is not compatible with having “arms”.
“Those people are not refugees, but they are groups with separatist motives,” the senior official stressed, adding that Tehran expects the central government in Iraq and officials in the Northern region of the Arab country to fulfill their obligations in line with the good neighborliness policy.
Kana’ani argued that a roadmap has been agreed upon within the framework of the Iran-Iraq security deal and the issues mentioned in that accord should be followed up accordingly.
Iranian officials have stressed that the Arab country should not allow third parties to use its soil to harm Iran or other neighbors. They say Iran considers Iraq’s security its own security and supports efforts to strengthen its stability and security.
Since late September, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has launched a series of aerial operations on the headquarters of terrorist groups in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. The military operation came after the illegal entry of armed teams linked with the Kurdish terrorist groups into the Iranian border cities in recent months.
The Permanent Mission of Iran to the UN has announced that diplomacy has failed to bring an end to the presence of terrorists in Kurdistan region and the terror activities in the Arab country has left Tehran with no other option but to use military force against them.
In mid-October, the Permanent Mission of Iran to the UN sent a letter to the head of the Security Council to elaborate on Tehran’s reasons for its recent military operation against terrorist groups in Northern Iraq, explaining that terrorists have used Iraqi territory to carry out armed attacks against civilians and Iran’s infrastructure.
The IRGC Ground Force has announced that the operations against terror bases will continue until all anti-Iran separatist and terrorist outfits holed up in the rugged mountainous area lay down their arms and surrender.
The Iranian Armed Forces, specially the IRGC, have repeatedly warned that they will never tolerate the presence and activity of terrorist groups along the Northwestern border and will give strong and decisive responses in case of anti-security activities.
The IRGC has on countless occasions attacked and destroyed terrorist hideouts in the Kurdistan region with artillery fire, missiles and drones.
Military officials warn of Tehran’s continued attacks against the strongholds of anti-revolutionary groups in the region, specially the Iraqi Kurdistan region. They threatened the Americans that their bases in the region should also be abolished and not be used as an anti-revolutionary center.
