Removing separatists from Iraqi Kurdistan near Iran starts Friday
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Sources to Al Mayadeen said that the process will see the dismantling and disarmament of the terrorist groups.
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Fighters of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI or KDPI) in 2013 (Wikimedia Commons)
A field committee will oversee as of Friday the process of extracting separatist Iranian groups currently present in the Kurdistan region of Iraq near the borders of Iran, sources informed on the matter told Al Mayadeen.
The separatist militias will vacate several locations and headquarters in Kurdistan they have occupied over the past years, the sources continued.
Commenting on the event, a source from the Iranian news agency Tasnim confirmed that "following this phase, a comprehensive disarmament of these separatist groups will be undertaken."
However, should the dismantling of their headquarters not proceed according to the agreed terms, or if certain separatist elements refuse to comply, the source cautioned that "Iran will revert to the situation it was in prior to the agreement, fully committed to safeguarding the nation's security," referring to military strikes conducted against the militants and their posts by the Iranian Armed Forces and Iranian Revolution Guard Corps IRGC.
Read more: IRGC targets terrorist outposts in Iraqi Kurdistan
An agreement with Iraq was reached earlier this year to close down the bases of the terrorist groups in Kurdistan, disarm them, and relocate them to areas away from the Iraq-Iran border, with 19 September being the final deadline to carry out the agreement.
Kanaani confirmed on Monday that Tehran will not extend the deadline.
During a meeting earlier this week with the President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Bafel Talabani, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian emphasized that the presence of terrorists in the Kurdistan region and their activities threatening Iran's security are "a serious matter, in contradiction with the Iraqi constitution and bilateral friendly relations," pointing out that "no party should compromise the security of Iraq's neighbors."
Iranian security and armed forces have carried out a number of operations against separatist groups planning to destabilize the security of the Islamic Republic and harm its citizens.
In August 2022, Iranian security forces arrested a terrorist group that had held several Iranian and Iraqi hostages in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, subjecting them to torture to extort a ransom. The freed hostages were subsequently returned to their families.
Also last year, Iranian media revealed that "elements based in the Kurdistan region of Iraq participated in an attack on Isfahan by smuggling drone parts and explosives through smuggling routes into the country in cooperation with a foreign security apparatus."
Since the beginning of 2023, Tehran has submitted over 70 documents to Iraq documenting the presence of armed terrorist groups in the Iraqi Kurdistan region after the IRGC launched a series of missile and drone attacks on "centers of conspiracy and anti-Iran establishments in the region."
At the time, Iran sent a message to the United Nations Security Council explaining the reasons behind its strikes on the terrorist groups, emphasizing that it had exhausted all other options.
Additionally, the Iraqi government agreed to a plan to redeploy its forces along its borders with Iran and Turkey as part of a broader plan to counter attacks launched by Turkey and Iran against different groups that they view as terrorists.
