Iraq, Iran Sign Border Security Agreement

Iraq and Iran signed a border security agreement meant to protect Iran from Kurdish dissidents living in Iraq’s Kurdish region. Iran charges that armed Kurdish dissidents are a threat to its security. The joint security agreement signed on Sunday in Baghdad includes coordination in “protecting the common borders between the two countries and consolidating cooperation in several security fields”,   the Iraqi prime minister’s office announced in a statement.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani in statements carrie on state news agency IRNA condemned the “vicious activities by counter-revolutionary elements,” a reference to the Iranian Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq. He said the agreement “can completely and fundamentally end the vicious actions of these groups.”

Iran has also accused Kurdish fighters of working with Israel, and has alleged that the Israeli spy agency Mossad operates in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region.

Last year, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched missile and drone attacks against the Iranian Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq, accusing them of inciting the protests sparked by the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini,22, while she was in the custody of the morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly.