Tehran Urges Baghdad to 'Rein in' Erbil
Iran
London, Tehran - Asharq Al-Awsat
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein held talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran on Thursday. It was the first high-level meeting between the two neighbors since the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' firing of ballistic missiles at Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Raisi criticized the Kurdish government during his talks with the FM, implicitly urging Baghdad to "rein it in". He accused Kurdish authorities of being "heedless" of Israeli "activity" in the Region. "Tehran is watching closely," he added. "The cooperation with the regime cannot be concealed ... we will not allow the security of the region to be undermined by any country, including Iraq." "Tehran expects neighboring countries, especially Iraq, to bar foreign presence that targets Iran," he stressed. This includes in regions controlled by the federal government and those controlled by Erbil. For his part, Hussein said: "Iraq will not be a platform for attacks against Iran or any country." He added that Baghdad was prepared for broader cooperation to prevent any threats to Iran's interests, reported Iraq's state news agency (INA). On Wednesday, he met his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and called for resolving security issues between their countries through dialogue. In March, Tehran targeted what it called "secret Israeli bases" during a missile attack on Erbil. The assault was meant to avenge Israeli air strikes that killed Iranian military personnel in Syria. Iran will harshly confront Israel "wherever it feels necessary", Esmail Qaani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, said on Thursday, according to the semi-official Nour News agency. "Wherever we identify a Zionist threat, we will harshly confront them, they are too small to confront us," he added.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3592941/tehran-urges-baghdad-rein-erbil
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