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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has officially complained to Tehran over a new short film that it claims has “distorted the facts” about the level of assistance Iran gave Erbil as the Islamic State (ISIS) came dangerously close to the Kurdistan Region’s capital in 2014.
“As the Department of Foreign Relations, we have informed the Consul General here and expressed our dissatisfaction,” Safeen Dizayee, head of the department, told Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on Sunday. “We have longstanding and cordial relations with Iran, and this kind of distortion of events should not be allowed.”
The film, which is one of a series of films about the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, killed by an American drone in January 2020, has caused an uproar in the Kurdistan Region.
The nine-minute film released this week by Farsnews, a media outlet affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), titled “A narrative of how Haj Qasem Soleimani saved the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” describes the period when ISIS militants arrived at the doorstep of Erbil in August 2014.
It claims to show the efforts of then president Masoud Barzani, to save the region by appealing to the allies to send reinforcements to shore up Peshmerga defenses.
Iran, as Kurdish officials have repeatedly said, was the first country to offer assistance to the Peshmerga, who faced a fight with undated and unsuitable equipment.
But the film claims that if it was not for Soleimani, Erbil would have fallen to the terror group -- a claim that has been refuted by Kurdish Peshmerga commanders and officials.
More than 1,800 Peshmerga fighters were killed and close to 10,000 wounded in three years of battle with ISIS from June 2014 until early 2017 when the remnants of the ISIS were forced out of the Kurdish areas.
"It is true that the international community helped us and the global coalition's warplanes helped us. But those who were on the ground and won the war were Peshmerga forces. No battle can be won with [only] air forces," Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leadership member Ali Awni told Rudaw's Sangar Abdulrahman on Saturday.
Nasrullah Rashnudi, Iran’s consul general in Erbil, told Rudaw that they have nothing to do with the film, adding they have “long-existing relations with our friends in the Kurdistan Region.”
“Our officials and Qasem Soleimani have wanted extended relations with the Kurdistan Region, especially with Masoud Barzani. The friendship between Qasem Soleimani and Barzani was strong until the last days [of Soleimani’s life]. He respected Barzani so much.”
Iranian authorities were even not aware of such a production, he claimed.
“The source which published the film is not clear yet. Maybe some people want to destroy our relations. However, we do not want this relation to end and we want to bolster it every day,” Rashnudi added.
Sirwan Barzani, commander of the Peshmerga’s Makhmour-Gwer front – where ISIS sleeper cells remain active - told Rudaw’s Hawraz Gulpy on Saturday that “Iran was the first country to provide us with ammunition.”
“After the liberation of Makhmour, an Iranian force of 14 personnel, including Qasem Soleimani, visited Makhmour front and stayed there for nearly 20 days. They also attended a number of battles,” said Barzani.
Iran started assisting Shiite militia groups – the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al Shaabi) - in Iraq in June 2014 when the Kurds and the PMF started fighting ISIS militants in Diyala governorate following the takeover of Mosul city, Mahmoud Sangawi, the top Peshmerga commander in the area said in an interview with the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news on January 2.
However, he refuted the claim that Iranians saved the day. “We were attacking Jalawla and he [Soleimani] said to me, ‘do you think you can take it in three days?’
Sangawi added that he replied to Soleimani, “‘If you stayed, you would see that we will take it back by this time tomorrow.’”
Kurdish media outlets, including Payam TV – affiliated to the Kurdistan Islamic Group - have also been criticised for sponsoring posts showing the film, which some see as a swipe at the government and the Peshmerga who fought ISIS.
"Most of the Kurdish media outlets are only Kurdish in language,” journalist Arsalan Rahman wrote on Facebook.
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