ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iranian intelligence ministry renewed their threats against Iraq and the Kurdistan Region on Sunday, warning that unless the border areas are secured and Kurdish opposition groups in the Region are disarmed, they will continue their military attacks on the Region.
“With the cooperation of the new Iraqi government and the guarantees given, we hope to witness security in the western borders and the non-repetition [of attacks], and to remind the responsibility of the Iraqi [Kurdistan] Region,” the semi-official ISNA news agency cited Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib as saying.
Khatib was referring to the arrest of four Iranian-Kurdish Komala party members who were branded “Mossad-related agents” and arrested near Isfahan last summer. Their confessions were aired in December, raising fears that they may have been executed. The four man team allegedly entered Iran from the western borders with the Kurdistan Region.
Iran had also accused Kurdish dissident groups on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency of smuggling the parts of three drones into the country from the Kurdistan Region that were used to carry out a drone strike on the Isfahan military facility in late January.
“In case of insecurity for the Islamic republic, any action on the borders will be met with a decisive and crushing response from the children of this nation in the armed forces and security agencies,” Khatib said in a warning message to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
The threats come at a time when Iranian authorities have launched a new wave of executions across the country, executing over a hundred people in the past twenty days, according to Oslo-based Iran Human Rights.
Iran executed at least 576 people last year, a significant increase from 314 in 2021, ranking it second behind China among the world’s top executioners, according to Amnesty International’s annual report. The alarming spike in executions this year come after last fall’s countrywide demonstrations over the death of Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini in custody of the so-called morality police and a crackdown on the drug trade.
Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region - namely the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Komala, and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) - have been accused of fueling the protest movement and inciting unrest in the country.
In late November, Iran targeted the bases of Kurdish dissident groups in the Kurdistan Region with a barrage of ballistic missiles and suicide drones, prompting the Iraqi government to increase the deployment of troops on its borders with Iran days following the spate of attacks, in an attempt to curb further violations of its sovereignty.
Two months prior, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched around 73 ballistic missiles and dozens of suicide drones towards bases of the opposition parties. At least 16 people were killed and 58 injured in the Iranian bombardment, according to the Kurdish health ministry.
The commander of the IRGC’s ground forces Mohammed Pakpour on Saturday warned Baghdad that should it not abide by the agreement to “disarm and expel” the Kurdish opposition groups, attacks across the border will continue.
“We are waiting for the government of Iraq to honor its commitments and have given them some time … Otherwise, if nothing happens, the IRGC’s attacks will go on,” he said.
In March last year, Iran attacked Erbil with twelve ballistic missiles, striking the residence of a well-known Kurdish businessman. The IRGC claimed responsibility for targeting “the strategic center of the Zionist conspiracy and evil by point-to-point missile.”
Kurdish authorities vehemently rejected this accusation. A fact-finding committee set up by the Iraqi parliament to investigate the claims found no evidence of spying activities in the area attacked.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which has cordial relations with Tehran, has on several occasions called on neighboring countries to not use the Region’s land as an arena to settle scores.
