Iraqi National Security Advisor heads to Tehran to discuss border security
Haj Omran border crossing on the border between Iran and the Kurdistan of Iraq. Photo: Reuters
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi National Security Advisor, Qassim Al-Araji, travelled on Monday to the Iranian capital, Tehran, heading a security delegation to discuss measures to secure the borders between Iraq and Iran, according to a statement cited by the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
The statement elaborated that Al-Araji’s visit to Tehran is part of the directives of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to discuss measures taken to secure the borders between Iraq and Iran.
Earlier, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard threatened the Iraqi government that it would re-target sites of armed groups in the Kurdistan region of Iraq if it did not commit to disarming these groups.
“An agreement with the Iraqi government was reached and it pledged to disarm and eliminate terrorist groups in Iraq,” the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Ground Forces, Mohammad Pakpour, told Tasnim News Agency.
“We are waiting for the Iraqi government to fulfill its obligations, and we gave it an opportunity, and if nothing happens, the attacks of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on those sites will continue,” Pakpour added.
The Iraqi National Security Advisor and the Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, signed a security agreement recently to coordinate between the two countries regarding the protection of their shared borders.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Ground Forces announced last March the launch of new attacks against the headquarters of what they described as a ‘separatist terrorist group’ in Kirkuk, northern Iraq.
Iran repeatedly targets the Kurdistan region of Iraq to bombard what it calls ‘sites of separatist and terrorist groups,’ while Baghdad denies sheltering any groups threatening neighboring countries.