Iraq on September 19 announced that it had complied with the terms of the joint security pact with Iran and disarmed the Kurdish exiled groups on the Iraq-Iran border, meeting the deadline Tehran had set for Baghdad to complete the disarmament process
six months prior.
“Based on our assessment, some parts of this agreement have been implemented while others still need to be carried out,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told reporters during his weekly presser on Monday.
Kanaani said that an Iranian team has been sent to Iraq to evaluate the level of implementation, stressing that both Iraqi and Kurdish authorities have reiterated their commitment to the pact and have cooperated with the Iranian side throughout the process.
He added that the Iranian team will share “a precise assessment” of the implementation of the pact with the Iraqi side once the report is presented to the Iranian supervisory committee.
“The headquarters located near the border with Iran, which were previously used by Iranian[-Kurdish] opposition groups, have been definitively evacuated,” read a statement from the Iraqi High Committee for the Implementation of the Joint Security Agreement back in September.
Kanaani said that they have been informed by Baghdad that “a great number” of the groups’ headquarters have been evacuated and that some of their hideouts have been “completely demolished,” while the rest are yet to be destroyed.
Tehran has long accused the KRG of harboring opposition groups it considers “terrorists” and allowing them to use the border areas as a launchpad for attacks against Iran.
Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region - namely the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Komala, Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) - have been accused of fueling the nationwide protest movement in Iran last year and inciting unrest in the country. The groups, struggling for greater rights for Iran’s marginalized Kurdish population, have fought an on-and-off war with the Islamic Republic.
Iranian armed forces have carried out many attacks on the alleged positions of these groups, including using both ballistic missiles and drones.
