Iraq and Iran sign deal to tighten border security

Iraqi officers say the transfer is aimed toward tightening the frontier with Iraq’s Kurdish area, the place Tehran says armed Kurdish dissidents pose a risk to its safety.

Iraq and Iran have signed a border safety settlement, a transfer Iraqi officers say is aimed primarily at tightening the frontier with Iraq’s Kurdish area, the place Tehran says Kurdish armed teams pose a risk to its safety.

Sunday’s joint safety settlement consists of coordination in “defending the widespread borders between the 2 nations and consolidating cooperation in a number of safety fields”, an announcement from the Iraqi prime minister’s workplace stated.

Iran’s Supreme Nationwide Safety Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani signed the cope with Iraq’s Nationwide Safety Adviser Qasim al-Araji, within the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, the prime minister’s workplace stated.

“Below the signed safety deal, Iraq pledges it might not enable armed teams to make use of its territory within the Iraqi Kurdish area to launch any border-crossing assaults on neighbour Iran,” stated an Iraqi safety official who attended the signing, in line with the Reuters information company.

Shamkhani denounced “vicious actions by counter-revolutionary components” in northern Iraq, a reference to the Kurdish teams working within the nation, in line with Iran’s state information company IRNA.

He stated the settlement signed on Sunday “can utterly and basically finish the vicious actions of those teams”, which the Iranian authorities labels as “terrorists”.

Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area hosts camps and rear bases operated by a number of Iranian Kurdish factions, which Iran has accused of serving Western or Israeli pursuits previously.

The frontier got here into renewed focus final yr when Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched missile and drone assaults towards Iranian Kurdish teams primarily based in northern Iraq, accusing them of fomenting protests that have been sparked by the loss of life of an Iranian Kurdish girl whereas she was being held in police custody.

After the Iranian strikes, Iraq in November introduced it might redeploy federal guards on the border between Kurdish Iraq and Iran, slightly than leaving the accountability to Kurdish Peshmerga forces – a transfer welcomed by Tehran.

Iranian Overseas Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, talking in Tehran, stated “Shamkhani’s present journey to Iraq has been deliberate for 4 months and is targeted on points associated to the armed teams in northern Iraq”.

Iran will under no circumstances settle for threats from Iraqi territories, he stated.

Factions primarily based in Iraq’s mountainous north have previously waged an armed rebel towards Tehran, however lately their actions have declined and specialists stated they’d ceased practically all army exercise.

Iran has additionally accused Kurdish fighters of working with its archenemy Israel, and has usually voiced concern over the alleged presence of the Israeli spy company Mossad within the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish area.

Final yr, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry stated a sabotage crew detained by its safety forces have been Kurdish fighters working for Israel who deliberate to explode a “delicate” defence trade centre within the metropolis of Isfahan.