Through Iraj Masjedi, the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Iran has threatened to invade several areas in the Kurdistan region of Iraq in order to carry out operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Kurdish fighters opposed to the regime in Iran.
Masjedi has indicated that Tehran would directly undertake operations to strike the armed movements in northern Iraq if the region authorities or the central government in Baghdad was still unable to repel these groups on the region territory, specifically for the Kurdish groups opposed to the government in Iran.
Masjedi’s statements come a few days after a senior commander in the IRGC confirmed that the Guards would enter any place deemed as a threat to Iranian security, citing the Revolutionary Guards’ interventions in both Syria and Yemen.
At the same time, Ismail Khatib, Iranian Security Minister, has revealed that Tehran had concluded an agreement with the central government in Iraq to disarm the anti-Iran Kurdish armed factions as soon as possible. This agreement come a few weeks after the IRGC targeted with drones and artillery the Iranian Kurdish parties’ positions in Sidekan district of Balkayti region in Erbil governorate.
For his part, Brigadier General Mohammed Pakpour, the commander of IRGC Ground Forces, has clarified Iran’s view. “The Iraqi government and the authorities of the Kurdistan region are required to prevent the terrorists from turning the Kurdistan region into a hotbed used for them to threaten Iran. Any negligence in this regard contradicts the good neighborliness and the good relations between the two countries,” he said calling on residents of the Kurdistan region of Iraq to stay away from the terrorists’ headquarters for their own safety.
