Tehran is not satisfied with the implementation of the recent security pact with Baghdad.
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s foreign ministry has called on the Iraqi ambassador to Tehran to “protest vigorously” against the continued presence of groups they say carry out “terrorist” activities.
The envoy was summoned on Saturday to receive Tehran’s anger over “an invitation to members of separatist groups to an official event” and “ongoing movements of some terrorist groups” in the Iraqi-Kurdish region, state-affiliated media reported.
While the groups were not named, the reference appears to be to Kurdish armed groups, including the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, a banned group that has advocated the secession of Iran’s northwestern province of Kurdistan and the overthrow of the government.
The State Department has reportedly said the groups’ presence violates a security agreement Iran and Iraq signed in Baghdad last month. Iran’s security chief, Ali Shamkhani, had said at the time that Tehran hopes the deal can “completely and fundamentally end the brutal actions of Kurdish groups” and prevent Iraqi borders from being used to threaten Iran.
Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region is home to camps and rear bases run by various Iranian-Kurdish factions, which Iran has historically accused of serving Western or Israeli interests and conducting operations with their support.
Last year, after protests erupted across Iran following the death in police custody of an Iranian Kurdish woman who was arrested for alleged non-compliance with the country’s clothing laws for women, Kurdish groups once again came into the spotlight. Tehran repeatedly accused them of smuggling weapons into the country through the Kurdish region of neighboring Iraq and of mounting “terrorist” operations.
It also called on Baghdad to disarm the groups and prevent Iraqi soil from being used against Iran.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) then launched multiple missile and drone strikes over weeks against the groups in Iraq’s Kurdish region amid criticism of the Iraqi government for not doing more.
After the current Iraqi government came to power in October, officials began negotiations leading to the signing of the security agreement.
The issue was also raised in late April, when Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid made his first state visit to Tehran and met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi. At the time, Khamenei stressed that the security agreement must be fully implemented.