Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Ground Forces, warned Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) against allowing terrorist groups to use its territory to pose threats against the security of the Islamic Republic.

Underlining that Iran has repeatedly warned the KRG authorities about the activities of terrorist and militant groups but they did not take action to prevent these activities, the Iranian general said terrorist and anti-revolutionary groups affiliated with foreign intelligence services have been using the KRG territories to disrupt security in Iran’s border regions.

“Terrorist and counterrevolutionary groups affiliated with the global arrogance and foreign espionage services have been using the territory of northern Iraq for many years to undermine security and peace in border areas of the Islamic Republic of Iran and harass the inhabitants of these regions,” the commander of the IRGC’s Ground Force said.

“In this regard, the Iraqi government and the officials of the northern region of Iraq have been given the necessary warnings,” he continued.

He made the remarks on Monday in reaction to recent moves by anti-Iran armed terrorists in the northwestern border areas of the country as he was inspecting military units and border posts in that region.

General Pakpour stressed that the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Region should not allow terrorists to roam and set up headquarters in the KRG to threaten and create insecurity against Iran.

“We consider any negligence and dereliction [of duty] in this regard to be contrary to good neighborliness and good relations between the two countries,” he cautioned.

General Pakpour even threatened to attack the headquarters of the KRG-based anti-revolutionary groups and advised people residing near these groups to stay away.

“Given the situation in the [northern Iraqi] region and the possibility of [giving] a firm and crushing response by the Islamic Republic of Iran to terrorist groups, which are affiliated with the sworn enemies of the [Islamic] Revolution and the Islamic Establishment, and are holed up in the northern Iraqi territory, we request the inhabitants of this region to distance themselves from terrorists’ bases, so that no harm would come to them,” he warned.

Rahmatullah Firouzipour, an Iranian lawmaker, echoed the same warning, saying that Iran will not tolerate that some militant groups enter Iran from border areas.

According to the lawmaker, Iran has repeatedly warned the KRG officials and Baghdad about the movements of terrorist groups based in the region against Iran, so if this practice continues, Iran will take the necessary and serious action.

“What is certain is that Iran, despite its complete independence and non-interference in the security issues of the countries, does not tolerate that some people want to enter the territory and borders of the Islamic Republic and will certainly deal with them,” he told Iranian Diplomacy.

“If those attacks are to take place from inside Iraq, the Iraqi government is responsible and should not allow some people in their territory as an opposition group to try to create problems for the neighboring countries,” Firouzpour said.

The Iranian warnings came nearly a month after Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Admiral Ali Shamkhani demanded that Iraq expel these groups from the KRG so that Iran would not be forced to take “preemptive” measures.

In a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein in Tehran, Shamkhani told the Iraqi diplomat that “some militant anti-Iran terrorist groups” have holed up in the Kurdistan region and that the Iraqi government should move to expel them. “We ask the Iraqi government to take more serious measures to expel these groups from Iraq’s Kurdistan so that Iran would not be forced to take preemptive action in order to prevent the continuation of the evil of armed terrorists in Iraqi Kurdistan,” Shamkhani told Hussein.

Nearly two weeks ago, the KRG’s Ministry of Interior requested the Kurdish opposition parties from neighboring countries not to use the territory of the Kurdistan region as a base for their operations and to spare the KRG the involvement in regional conflicts. But this request seems to have been insufficient as Iranian media outlets reported that the KRG-based anti-Iran groups have made new movements.

Iraqi Kurdistan Region has been used for a long time by such anti-Iran terror groups as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its offshoot, PJAK, which are active in Iraq and Turkey, to launch occasional attacks against the positions of Iranian border guards and border areas in northwestern parts of the country, Press TV reported, adding that the attacks have been invariably faced with crushing responses from Iran’s border guards and other military units deployed in those areas.

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According To Iran News, The Iranian foreign minister and the president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government discussed the latest regional developments at a meeting in Doha.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and KRG President Nechirvan Barzani met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference Core Group Meeting in Qatar’s capital on Monday evening.

They discussed issues of mutual interest and the latest regional developments, particularly the current conditions in Iraq and northern Syria.

Public anti-government protests have erupted in Iraq since early October. More than 230 Iraqis have reportedly been killed in the protests this month.

At least 74 people were killed in Iraq on Friday and Saturday and hundreds wounded as demonstrators clashed with security forces in the second wave of this month’s protests against Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s government.

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Reduced exchange rate and government’s exertion of pressure on exporters for repatriating exports currency have been cited as one of the main reasons behind significant reduction behind Iran’s export of products to Iran, he emphasized.

In addition, political movements in Iraq have been considered as an external factor contributed to the reduced export of products from Iran to Iraq, Hosseini stated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the secretary general said, “Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) has halted daily release of exports statistics and added, “typically, whenever exports trend is slowed, exports situation is not satisfactory.”

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‘Truck’ recounts the story of a Yazidi woman who becomes homeless after the Iraqi ethnic and religious minority is attacked by ISIL terrorists in the summer of 2014.

The feature received nominations in six categories of the 36th Fajr Film Festival in 2018, including best film, best screenplay, best director, best actor, best editing and best makeup, and managed to win the award for best screenplay.

Duhok film festival aims to showcase innovative films of high artistic value with a notable handwriting made throughout the world, according to the event’s website.

The 7th edition of Duhok International Film Festival will be held on 9 – 16 September 2019.

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Customs office in Kurdistan’s Bashmaq border is busy active in the field of transiting, importing, exporting goods and also passenger’s affairs.

He put the volume of domestic transit of goods from Bashmaq border in the first three months of the current year (March 21 – June 21) at 13,32 tons, valued at $3,595,953.

In addition, 156,771 tons of goods, valued at $87,128,892, were exported from Bashmaq border crossing in the same period, Rahmanipour stressed.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the director general pointed to the volume of goods transited from this province and said, “statistics showed that total volume of goods transited from this province has decreased 15 percent in terms of weight as compared to the last year’s corresponding period.”

Kurdistan province customs office has active branches in Sanandaj, Bashmaq border in Marivan, Siranband border crossing in Baneh which are offering quality customs services to economic activists and entrepreneurs, Director General of Kurdistan province Customs Office Bakhtiar Rahmanipour added.

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An economic delegation from Halabja, Iraqi Kurdistan region, is set to visit the western Iranian province of Kermanshah later today to talk over the expansion of bilateral ties.

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Heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation, Zarif arrived in Erbil, the Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital, this morning.

He was welcomed by the prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), Nechirvan Barzani, on arriving.

The Iranian top diplomat is slated to hold talks with senior KRG officials on a range of issues, including ways to boost bilateral relations.

On Sunday, Zarif arrived in Baghdad for an official visit. The visit comes against the backdrop of Iran’s efforts to boost its foreign trade in the US sanctions era.

Iraq’s foreign minister said recently that his country is “not obliged” to abide by sanctions imposed by the US against Iran and would be pursuing options to continue bilateral trade.

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Abadi should have waited until the new Iraqi government was formed, so Baghdad could clarify its position on the U.S. trade war against Iran, Nazim Dabagh was quoted as saying by ISNA on Sunday.

Dabagh added that it is not in favor of the Iraqi government and its people to be against Iran because the two are neighbors and share common interests.

Abadi said on Tuesday that Iraq will abide by U.S. sanctions, but also expressed reservations by calling the move an “essential and strategic mistake.”

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