TEHRAN: According to media reports, Iran summoned Iraq’s ambassador to protest the presence of Iranian opposition groups at an official event in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
According to ISNA news agency, citing the foreign ministry, at Saturday’s meeting, Tehran expressed its “strong objection” to the invitation of members of “separatist groups” to the ceremony, which was “contrary to the recent security agreement between the Islamic republic and Iraq.”
Iran refers to Kurdish factions opposing the Iranian government as “separatist groups” and considers them to be “terrorist” organizations.
Several Iranian Kurdish factions have camps and rear bases in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, which Iran has accused of serving Western or Israeli objectives in the past.
Iran and Iraq inked a contract in March to secure their shared border, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi confirmed the “security” accord the following month, adding, “the security of Iraq and its borders is very important to us.”
On Thursday, a ceremony in the Kurdistan region was organized to dedicate a cultural center in honor of the late Kurdish national hero Mustafa Barzani.
Iraqi President Abdel Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, as well as leaders from Iranian opposition parties, attended the ceremony.
“Following the invitation of members of separatist groups to an official ceremony in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region and the continuation of some terrorist groups’ movements in this region, the Iraqi ambassador in Tehran was summoned to the ministry of foreign affairs on Saturday,” according to ISNA.
Iran began cross-border missile and drone strikes against numerous groups in northern Iraq in November, accusing them of fomenting nationwide protests sparked by the murder in captivity of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini last September.