ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The territorial integrity of Iraq has been violated many times in the past and must be respected, the spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General said on Tuesday, a day after a deadly drone strike in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province. “The territorial integrity of Iraq needs to be respected,” Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told Rudaw’s Sinan Tuncdemir on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York. Dujarric stressed that Iraqi sovereignty has repeatedly been violated in the past and that such violations lead to undesired higher tensions. “It is primordial that the [territorial] integrity be respected, and also that neither side does anything that could heighten tensions,” he said, adding that the UN continues to push for de-escalation and peace in the country. His remarks came a day after a deadly drone strike in Sulaimani province’s Arbat airport targeted three members of the Sulaimani-based Counter-Terrorism Group (CTF), affiliated to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The strike has been blamed on Turkey. In a statement on Tuesday, Turkey blamed the PUK for cooperating with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) of northeast Syria, which Ankara considers as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a designated terrorist group in the country. Turkey said that YPG members were receiving training at Arbat airport when it was struck. Turkey and Iran have repeatedly violated Iraq and the Kurdistan Region’s sovereignty by launching aerial bombardments on alleged positions of armed groups they consider hostile and a threat to their national security. “In Iraq, there is a UN presence … we have contacts in the regional and federal revel in that regard,” Dujarric said. On Monday, Iraq’s top military spokesperson Yehia Rasool said that the drone that struck Arbat airport and killed three people came from Turkey. The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) condemned the attack on the airport on Tuesday, stating that “Attacks repeatedly violating Iraqi sovereignty must stop. Security concerns must be addressed through dialogue and diplomacy - not strikes.”
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