World
Pat Ryder, the US defense department press secretary, speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022. Photo: AP/Susan Walsh
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States on Tuesday said that they were “concerned” about the possibility of an Iranian attack against targets in the Kurdistan Region and Saudi Arabia, as reports based on intelligence from Riyadh circulated earlier in the day suggesting such a threat.
An article from the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday claimed that the United States has received intelligence from Saudi Arabia alerting of an “imminent attack” by Tehran against targets in Erbil and Saudi, in an effort to steer focus away from the anti-regime protests in Iran.
“I can say that we do remain concerned,” Pat Ryder, the US defense department press secretary, told reporters when asked about the reports, noting that Washington remains in contact with Riyadh in terms of what information they may have to provide.”
Iran has been engulfed in turmoil for the past seven weeks since the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini while in the custody of Tehran’s morality police on September 16, igniting an unprecedented nationwide protest movement that has brought Iranians from all corners together to call for the overthrow of the Islamic regime.
Tehran has accused regional and international rivals, such as Washington and Riyadh, of promoting the current unrest in Iran through expressing solidarity with the protesters and their media coverage of the demonstrations.
“We will reserve the right to protect and defend ourselves no matter where our forces are serving, whether in Iraq or elsewhere,” Ryder added.
Iran showered the skies of the Kurdistan Region with ballistic missiles and suicide drones late September, under the pretext of targeting bases of exiled Kurdish opposition groups, whom they accuse of arming the protesters in the country.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked Erbil with twelve ballistic missiles in March, claiming to targets Israeli bases in the Kurdistan Region. Erbil and Baghdad have repeatedly denied the accusations.
The Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran have had rocky relations since 1979, when Shiite revolutionaries came to power in Iran and pledged to export their revolution to the world, including Gulf countries.
Their relations deteriorated in 2016 when Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions after the kingdom executed Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Riyadh responded by cutting ties with Tehran.
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