Iran opposes ‘independence’ move by Kurdish region
TEHRAN: Iran voiced its opposition on Saturday to an announcement by Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region that it will organize a vote on independence later this year.
“Iran’s principal position is to support the territorial integrity of Iraq,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said.
“The Kurdistan region is part of the Iraqi republic and unilateral decisions outside the national and legal framework, especially the Iraqi Constitution... can only lead to new problems.”
Iraqi Kurdish leaders announced on Wednesday that they will organize an independence referendum on Sept. 25, not only in their threeprovince autonomous region but also in other historically Kurdishmajority areas they have long sought to incorporate in it.
Iran worries about separatism among its own Kurds, most of whom live in areas along the border with Iraq.
Rebels of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan launch sporadic attacks into Iran from rear-bases in Iraq, triggering sometimes deadly clashes with the security forces.
After an upsurge attacks in 2011, Iranian troops launched a crossborder incursion, forcing KDPI to retreat deeper into Iraq.
The federal government in Baghdad is deeply opposed to the referendum plan of the regional government in Erbil, as is neighboring Turkey, which has a large and restive Kurdish minority of its own.
Washington has expressed concern that it could distract from the joint fight against Daesh by stoking tensions between the Kurds and Arabs and Turkmen in northern Iraq.
“An integrated, stable and democratic Iraq guarantees the interests of the whole people (of Iraq) from all ethnic and religious groups,” Ghasemi said.
“Today, Iraq more than ever needs peace and national unity and differences between Erbil and Baghdad must be resolved within the framework of dialogue and in compliance with Iraq’s Constitution.”
8 held for Tehran attacks Iranian authorities have arrested eight suspects for allegedly supporting the Daesh-claimed attacks on Iran’s Parliament and the grave of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that killed 17 people in Tehran, the staterun IRNA news agency reported Saturday.
The report quoted Ahmad Fazelian, chief justice of Alborz province west of Tehran as saying: “These agents who were supporters of the two terrorist groups, and had full coordination with them, were arrested and they were delivered to Tehran’s judicial and security authorities.”
Meanwhile, Iran police chief Gen. Hossein Ashtari said several people with connections to the attackers were arrested around the capital area.