Iran's Khamenei tells Iraq to move against Kurdish groups
While Iraq has been unsettled by Iranian strikes on Kurdish groups, Tehran appeared adamant in its demand for their ouster from Iraqi soil.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei criticized the presence of Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan and called on Baghdad to use its power against them.
Khamenei made the request at a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who was in Tehran on Tuesday. Prior to the meeting, according to Iranian state media, Sudani announced at a joint presser with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi that Iraq will not allow its soil to be used to destabilize other countries.
Despite that pledge, Khamenei still said that anti-Iran activity "is unfortunately happening in some areas of Iraq," in an apparent reference to Iranian assertions that opposition groups are operating from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region. "The only solution is that the central Iraqi government expand its authority to those areas as well," the Iranian leader told Sudani.
Iran's state media did not specify whether Sudani had addressed Khamenei's demand, but quoted him as repeating his promise, and saying that "the security of Iran and Iraq are intertwined."
