DUBAI, January 16. /TASS/. The recent attack by the Iranian military on Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan autonomous region in northern Iraq, may lead to the termination of the border security agreement between the two countries, As-Sumaria quoted a senior official as saying.
"The Iranian attack on civilian facilities in Erbil in northern Iraq risks severing the security agreement between the two countries," the unnamed official told the Iranian television channel.
Vahid Jalalzadeh, who chairs the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, lamented that Iraq failed to adhere to certain provisions of its security agreement with Iran. According to him, Iran called on the Iraqi government to pay more attention to the bilateral treaty, which was signed in Baghdad on March 19, 2023, in order to prevent enemies from using Iraqi soil for any anti-Iranian activity.
Meanwhile, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid said the ballistic missile strike posed a threat to security and stability in both Iraq and the entire region as he strongly condemned the bombing. "Issues can be resolved through constructive dialogue, not through military attacks that threaten the stability of Iraq. Now is a time to reduce tensions in the entire region, not amplify them," he wrote in a statement on X (former Twitter).
In turn, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were just a part of Iran’s response to those who threaten Iran’s national stability. "While the enemy embarked on committing crimes against the nation and government of the Islamic republic <…>, Iran identified criminals’ hideouts and then launched precision missiles to target the foes," the Iranian Foreign Ministry quoted Kanaani as saying on its Telegram channel.
Terrorism is a global threat, and Iran is determined to combat it "in the framework of regional and international collaborations," the Iranian diplomat concluded.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi Ambassador to Tehran Nassir Abdel Mohsen was recalled for consultations in the wake of the attacks, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said on its Telegram channel.
In the early hours of Tuesday, the IRGC attacked what it said were Israeli "spy headquarters" in Erbil as well as the stationing areas of anti-Iranian terrorist groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, IRNA news agency reported. The elite Iranian militia stated that the strike had been carried out in response to the January 3 terrorist attack in the Iranian city of Kerman and the killing of IRGC commanders. Iraqi Kurdistan’s Security Council slammed the Iranian attack as a violation of its sovereignty and warned that it would lodge an complaint with the United Nations Security Council.