Iraq limits existence of Iranian Kurdish opposition in 5 camps
The Iraqi Defense Minister, Thabet Al-Abbasi, boards military cargo plane during domestic flight. Photo: Iraqi Ministry of Defense
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Defense Minister, Thabet Al-Abbasi, announced on Tuesday that the presence of the Iranian Kurdish opposition is limited to five camps in Iraq.
In an interview with Al-Arabiya News, Al-Abbasi said Iraqi forces were deployed on the border with Iran.
Al-Abbasi elaborated that Iraq does not allow its sovereignty to be violated.
The Iraqi Defense Minister explained that Iraq does not allow its lands to be used to threaten any of the neighboring countries.
Al-Abbasi elaborated that there are diplomatic and political ways to solve problems with Iran and Turkey.
Sources reported on Sunday that the Iranian-Kurdish opposition camps had been transferred to areas in Iraq away from the Iraqi-Iranian border.
The sources also indicated that Iraqi border guard forces are deployed on the Iraqi-Iranian border.
Last March, the former Secretary of the Iranian National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, and his Iraqi counterpart, Qassim Al-Araji, signed a joint security agreement after negotiations that began in the wake of multiple missile and drone attacks against sites in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Last year, Iran bombarded more than once the sites of Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, whom Tehran accuses of participating in the protests that shook Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, after she was arrested by the Iranian morality police.
The two countries concluded a security agreement last March, but Tehran demands that Iraq disarm Iranian Kurdish opposition groups by September 19 and evacuate them to camps.
The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Fuad Hussein, stated earlier that these groups have been in the Kurdistan region of Iraq for four or five decades.
Hussein also elaborated that these groups have been moved from the border areas with Iran to remote camps in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
In late August, the spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanaani, said the date set to disarm and move opposition groups from the Iraqi-Iranian border would not be extended.