Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein says his country has implemented all clauses of the security agreement with neighboring Iran concerning the complete disarmament of anti-Iran terrorist groups operating in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and their re-location.
Hussein made the remarks in an exclusive interview with the US government-owned Arabic-language Alhurra satellite TV channel on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday.
The top Iraqi diplomat went on to highlight the political and security aspects of the pact, stating that Iran’s cessation of artillery bombardments on the positions of secessionist groups in the Kurdistan region was among the conditions of the agreement.
Iraq, in return, is obligated to remove armed elements from border areas. The central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have managed to successfully undertake the task, Hussein noted.
Earlier in the day, Chief of General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, said Tehran has given Iraq several more days to fully implement a March agreement to relocate and disarm anti-Iran groups.
He noted that then agreement stipulated that such groups be disarmed by September 19; but this has not happened yet.
“What happened during this six-month respite was that [they] just distanced a bit from the borders of our country,” he said while thanking the Iraqi government for its efforts to disarm the separatists.
The presence of Kurdish terrorist groups, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Komala, Kurdistan Free Life Party, and the Kurdistan Freedom Party, has been a source of tension between Iran and Iraq for years, with these groups often carrying out terrorist attacks on Iranian soil.
Following last year’s riots, triggered by the death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, these groups intensified their subversive operations against Iran and smuggled weapons to their local agents.
That prompted Iran to push Iraq to put an end to terrorist activities of the anti-Iran groups, leading to the March agreement.
