Iran calls on Iraq to expel Iranian opposition from Kurdistan region

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, yesterday called on the Iraqi government to expel Iranian opposition groups from the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Shamkhani said during a meeting with visiting Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein in Tehran that the spread of some anti-Iran armed groups in the Kurdistan region is undesirable for Iran and called on the Iraqi government to be more “serious” in expelling them, so that “Iran does not have to take precautionary measures to prevent the continuation of the evil of armed terrorists in Iraqi Kurdistan”

For his part, Hussein said any action launched against Iran from Iraq is “contrary” to the Iraqi government’s agenda.

“We will deal strongly with any group or movement that wants to exploit Iraqi territory in any way to threaten Iran’s security,” the Iraqi minister said.

Iranian Kurdish opposition groups are active in the mountainous areas of the country’s northwestern border with Turkey, as well as in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Last Saturday, the opposition Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran accused Tehran of assassinating party leader, Musa Babakhani, whose body was found in a hotel in Erbil, the capital of the Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

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