KDPI says will not be forced out of Kurdistan Region
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish opposition party that has been under Iranian bombardment for five days said they will not give into pressure to move out of their bases in the Kurdistan Region.
This is “not something to be considered,” Mohammed Nazif Qaderi, a senior Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) official, told Rudaw’s Shaho Amin on Monday when asked if they will leave the Kurdistan Region.
Tehran and Baghdad may talk about it, he said, but the KDPI “will not accept any agreement outside our own political will and the interests of the people in eastern Kurdistan [Kurdish areas of Iran] and will not give into any pressure.”
Iranian forces have bombarded areas within the Kurdistan Region since Thursday, using warplanes and drones to target regions where several Kurdish opposition parties operate. There have been no reported casualties.
The KDPI, alongside other Kurdish parties, fought a bloody war in the 1980s against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Crops (IRGC) and other security forces in Kurdish areas known to Kurds as Rojhelat. Outnumbered and outgunned, they were eventually forced out and since the late 1980s they have been based in the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday said they have spoken with Iraqi officials about their military operations in the Kurdistan Region. “This action is in response to the repeated attacks carried out by these groups near the Iranian border and against the Islamic Republic, and several border guards were martyred," Saeed Khatibzadeh said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi visited Tehran on Sunday. There, he met the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, who called for the “immediate disarmament and expulsion” of the Kurdish groups, Iranian Tasnim News Agency reported.
Shamkhani made similar comments in August in a meeting with Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, saying Tehran would take preemptive strikes against the groups based in the Kurdistan Region unless Baghdad expels them.
The KDPI’s Qaderi said Tehran has been making these threats since the start of the Islamic Republic, but forcing them out is not a simple matter. “Our goal in the struggle is the protection of Kurdistan Region’s achievements and we think these achievements are one for all Kurds,” he said.
Kawa Bahrami, top Peshmerga commander of the KDPI on Monday claimed they have downed four Iranian drones out of 16 sent across the border since September 9, the third anniversary of a deadly attack by the IRGC, which fired around a dozen ballistic missiles at the headquarters of the KDPI and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I), killing at least 16.
Additional reporting by Shaho Amin
This is “not something to be considered,” Mohammed Nazif Qaderi, a senior Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) official, told Rudaw’s Shaho Amin on Monday when asked if they will leave the Kurdistan Region.
Tehran and Baghdad may talk about it, he said, but the KDPI “will not accept any agreement outside our own political will and the interests of the people in eastern Kurdistan [Kurdish areas of Iran] and will not give into any pressure.”
Iranian forces have bombarded areas within the Kurdistan Region since Thursday, using warplanes and drones to target regions where several Kurdish opposition parties operate. There have been no reported casualties.
The KDPI, alongside other Kurdish parties, fought a bloody war in the 1980s against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Crops (IRGC) and other security forces in Kurdish areas known to Kurds as Rojhelat. Outnumbered and outgunned, they were eventually forced out and since the late 1980s they have been based in the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday said they have spoken with Iraqi officials about their military operations in the Kurdistan Region. “This action is in response to the repeated attacks carried out by these groups near the Iranian border and against the Islamic Republic, and several border guards were martyred," Saeed Khatibzadeh said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi visited Tehran on Sunday. There, he met the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, who called for the “immediate disarmament and expulsion” of the Kurdish groups, Iranian Tasnim News Agency reported.
Shamkhani made similar comments in August in a meeting with Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, saying Tehran would take preemptive strikes against the groups based in the Kurdistan Region unless Baghdad expels them.
The KDPI’s Qaderi said Tehran has been making these threats since the start of the Islamic Republic, but forcing them out is not a simple matter. “Our goal in the struggle is the protection of Kurdistan Region’s achievements and we think these achievements are one for all Kurds,” he said.
Kawa Bahrami, top Peshmerga commander of the KDPI on Monday claimed they have downed four Iranian drones out of 16 sent across the border since September 9, the third anniversary of a deadly attack by the IRGC, which fired around a dozen ballistic missiles at the headquarters of the KDPI and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDP-I), killing at least 16.
Additional reporting by Shaho Amin