Kurdistan
The Iranian Supreme Leader’s representative on Iran’s Defense Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian. Photo: IRNA
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior Iranian official on Friday issued a stark warning to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), threatening that "all facilities" could be targeted "on a massive scale" if Iranian Kurdish opposition parties based in the Region enter Iran.
The Iranian Supreme Leader’s representative on Iran’s Defense Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, said on Friday that Iran has so far focused only on US and Israeli bases in the region, as well as opposition political parties operating within the Kurdistan Region.
"Should their continued presence and plotting be permitted, or should these groups or [Zionist] regime elements enter the borders of the Islamic Republic through the Region, all facilities of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq...will be targeted on a massive scale," Ahmadian warned, as cited by Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
Ahmadian also emphasized that friendly relations and the support of the Islamic Republic for the Kurdistan Region during difficult days will come to an end, he warned.
"The Islamic Republic’s friendly relations and unwavering support for the Kurdistan Region during difficult times, such as the [Islamic State] ISIS attack, will cease," Ahmadian added.
Ahmadian's remarks come amid reports about a CIA plan to arm and support Iranian Kurdish opposition parties based in the Kurdistan Region to launch ground operations into the predominantly Kurdish western Iran (Rojhelat) to fight the Islamic Republic. Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with several Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish leaders.
On Wednesday, several Iranian Kurdish opposition groups categorically rejected the reports.
An official from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), who spoke to Rudaw on condition of anonymity, affirmed, “None of our forces have entered the territory of Eastern Kurdistan [Rojhelat].”
“Such media reports are intended to create divisions within the coalition of East Kurdistan forces and are not true,” he stressed.
Additionally, the Kurdistan Region has reaffirmed that it will not side with any party in the US-Israel war against Iran and will not allow any group to use the Region as a launchpad to carry out attacks on neighboring countries.
On Thursday, Trump said that a potential ground offensive by Kurdish forces against the Iranian government would be a “wonderful” idea amid reports of Washington’s plan to arm Iranian Kurdish armed groups to fight Tehran.
“I think it’s wonderful if they want to do that,” Trump told Reuters in a telephone interview.
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