ISLAMABAD: Iran’s top security official on Sunday inked a deal with Iraqi authorities for their common borders’ “protection”, the Iraqi PM’s office said, months after Tehran struck Kurdish opposition groups in N Iraq.
Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region hosts camps and bases operated by a number of Iranian Kurdish factions, which Iran has accused of serving Israeli or Western interests in the past.
In November last year, Iran launched cross-border drone and missile strikes against a number of the groups in N Iraq, accusing them of stoking the nationwide unrest triggered by the custodial death last September of Mahsa Amini who was an Iranian Kurdish woman.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council’s head Ali Shamkhani signed the deal in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart Qassem al-Araji, the statement said.
A statement from the Iraqi PM’s office added that the deal comprises coordination over the common borders’ protection, and will also see the “strengthening of cooperation in several areas of security”.
According to Iran’s state news agency IRNA, Shamkhani denounced vicious actions by counter-revolutionary elements in N Iraq, a reference to Kurdish groups operating there.
He said the deal signed on Sunday can fundamentally and completely end the “vicious actions” of these groups. The Iranian government labels these groups as “terrorists”.
Iraq redeployed federal guards on border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran
Following the Iranian strikes, Iraq in November last year announced the redeployment of federal guards on the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran, instead of Kurdish peshmerga forces. The move was welcomed by Tehran.
Shamkani’s trip coincides with the US-led invasion of Iraq’s 20th anniversary that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein.
Riyadh and Tehran had severed all diplomatic ties in 2016 before a Chinese-brokered reconciliation pact was announced earlier this month.
