Iraq's national security advisor said on Wednesday that Kurdish forces have bolstered security along the Iranian border to prevent any infiltration or attacks on Iran from Iraq.Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region has been dragged into the Middle East war with drones threatening US bases and other attacks blamed on Iran targeting Kurdish-Iranian rebel fighters.
The Kurdistan region hosts camps and rear bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups that have repeatedly faced cross-border strikes from Iran, which has long accused them of serving Western or Israeli interests.
Qassem al-Araji told Iranian official Ali Bagheri during a phone call that Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has ordered that no group may "infiltrate into Iran and carry out terrorist acts from Iraqi territory".
Araji said that Iraqi Kurdish authorities have sent "security reinforcements to the border strip to fully tighten control over" it from the direction of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region.
He also said that Sudani ordered strict adherence to the security agreement between the two countries which they signed in 2023 to protect their common borders.
Iraq and Iran had previously agreed to disarm the Kurdish-Iranian rebels and remove them from border areas.
Since Tuesday, two Iranian Kurdish groups accused Iran of striking their positions in Kurdistan.
Last month, five groups announced a political coalition with the main goal being "the struggle to overthrow the Islamic republic of Iran, and to achieve self-determination for the Kurds".
On Wednesday, the Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), Mustafa Hijri, urged soldiers and security personnel in Iran, especially in Kurdistan, to desert the Iranian forces.
