ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A senior Iranian official has said that Tehran would take preemptive strikes against opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region unless Baghdad expels the groups, days after an opposition group based in the Region accused Tehran of murdering one of its members in a hotel room in Erbil.
Iran's Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani told Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein that Iran "asks the Iraqi government to have more serious moves to expel these [opposition] groups from Iraqi Kurdistan so Iran doesn't have to take preemptive actions to prevent the continuation of the wickedness of the armed terrorists in Iraqi Kurdistan," Iranian state media reported on Tuesday.
Senior official Mousa Babakhani from the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I) was found dead on Saturday in a hotel room in Erbil, the party’s official media outlet said. Babakhani was a Peshmerga fighter for 22 years.
Shamkhani and Hussein met in Tehran on Tuesday. They discussed Baghdad-Tehran ties and agreements. Hussein stated that Iraq will "strongly deal" with any group or movement that wants to abuse Iraqi territory to threaten Iran's security.
The meeting comes almost a week after the swearing-in ceremony of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi. The inauguration was attended by representatives from dozens of countries, including Iraq, and a high-level delegation from the European Union. A Kurdish delegation led by Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani was also in attendance.
During the visit, Hussein delivered Raisi an invitation to attend a regional summit happening in Baghdad later this month.
The leaders of Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and several other Middle Eastern countries will meet at the regional summit. The office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi confirmed the summit which will be held in coordination with France.
