“For years the terrorist groups and counter-revolutionaries linked to the Global Arrogance [United States] and the foreign spy agencies use the geographical region of northern Iraq [Kurdistan Region] to disturb the security and peace of the border areas of the Islamic Republic of Iran and to cause harm to the people in these areas. We have warned the officials of the Iraqi government and the officials of the northern region,” Mohammed Pakpour, the commander of IRGC’s ground forces was quoted as saying by Tasnim News Agency.
Several Iranian Kurdish armed opposition groups have bases in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains. They frequently clash with Iranian security forces in the Kurdish areas of western Iran. Iranian forces also periodically shell border areas with the Kurdistan Region.
Pakpour visited military outposts along the border following recent activities by the Kurdish groups, according to Tasnim. He said the Kurdistan Region and Iraq should not allow armed groups to use their territory to threaten Iran. “We consider any negligence in this regard as contrary to the good neighborly relations,” he said.
He also warned local civilian populations to stay out of harm’s way in case Iran takes action against the Kurdish groups. “Given the condition in the region and the possibility of a severe and decisive response by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the terrorist groups… nested in the northern Iraqi region, we call on the people of these regions to stay away from the bases of these terrorist groups so they do not come to any harm,” he said.
In a joint statement from Kurdish parties, issued by the Cooperation Center of Iranian Kurdistan political parties, they condemned Iran's threats and said they will hold Tehran responsible for any harm done to civilian populations and property, and the environment. The people living in the areas Iran has threatened, the parties said, are women and children.
The parties noted that Iran's threats come a month ahead of Iraq's parliamentary elections, which are plagued by calls for a boycott out of concern that a free and fair vote is not possible in the current environment where powerful Iranian-backed militias operate outside of government control, activists and candidates are threatened, and there is the fear of fraud.
They also claimed Iran’s goal is to destabilize the Kurdistan Region in general, part of what they said is a campaign against the Kurdish people. “The regime’s problem is with the stability and development of the Kurdistan Region,” they stated.
Iran's threats are "interpreted as a hostile attempt to destabilize the region in order to facilitate its intervention," read the joint statement.
In late August, the IRGC clashed with an armed opposition group in Kurdistan province, claiming to kill a number of fighters, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) said an official from Iran’s Basij paramilitary force was killed by an armed group, the Zagros Eagles.
In 2018, after several lethal clashes between Iranian forces and Kurdish groups, Iran fired ballistic missiles at the headquarters of two Kurdish opposition groups in the town of Koya, more than 100 km deep into the Kurdistan Region.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which has cordial relations with Tehran, has called on armed Iranian Kurdish opposition groups not to launch attacks against neighboring countries and Iranian security forces from Kurdistan Region territory.
A senior Iranian security official, Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, in August called on Iraq to “take more serious action to expel these groups from Iraqi Kurdistan so that Iran does not have to take preventative measures,” Reuters reported.
