Tehran is unhappy with how its recent security pact with Baghdad is being implemented.
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s foreign ministry has summoned the Iraqi ambassador to Tehran to “strongly protest” the continued presence of groups it says carry out “terrorist” activities.
The envoy was summoned on Saturday to face Tehran’s ire over “an invitation to members of secessionist groups for an official event” and “the continued movements of some terrorist groups” in Iraq’s Kurdish region, media affiliated with the state.
Although the groups were not named, the reference appeared to be to Kurdish armed groups, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, a banned group that has advocated secession from Iran’s northwestern Kurdistan province and the overthrow of the government.
The foreign ministry reportedly said the groups’ presence is against a security agreement Iran and Iraq signed last month in Baghdad. Iran’s security chief Ali Shamkhani had said at the time that Tehran hoped the deal “can put an end to the vicious 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 outposts run by various Iranian Kurdish factions, which Iran has accused of serving Western or Israeli interests in the past and conducting operations with its support.
Last year, after protests erupted across Iran following the death in police custody of an Iranian Kurdish woman who was arrested for allegedly violating the country’s women’s dress laws, Kurdish groups they refocused. Tehran has repeatedly accused them of smuggling weapons into the country through Iraq’s neighboring Kurdish region and of trying to organize “terrorist” operations.
He 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 against the groups in Iraq’s Kurdish region for weeks amid criticism of the Iraqi government for not doing more.
After the current Iraqi government came to power in October, officials entered into negotiations that led to the signing of the security agreement.
The issue was also discussed in late April, when Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid made his first state visit to Tehran and met with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Pres. Ebrahim Raisi. At the time, Khamenei emphasized that the security agreement must be fully implemented.
