Iraq in full control of all border points with Iran: Top general

The spokesman for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command says government forces have begun to gain full control over all border points with neighboring Iran, stressing Baghdad is fully committed to implementing the security agreement with Tehran.

“Iraqi government forces have begun to establish control over all border points with Iran, and apply Iraq’s laws and sovereignty there,” Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji said in an interview published on Sunday.

“The step is meant to prevent the use of Iraqi soil to launch an attack on neighboring states, as emphasized in the Iraqi Constitution,” he added.

“Iraqi forces have the military capabilities to control the common border strip between Iraq and Iran,” he said. “The central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) coordinate at high levels in this regard.”

Khafaji underscored that Iraq is fully committed to implementing the security agreement with Iran because the pact is in the interest of Iraq’s national security.

Iran has set a deadline of September 19 for the Iraqi-Kurdish authorities to take action against secessionist groups stationed in northern Iraq along the common border.

An informed source said on Friday that the armed groups had agreed to lay down their arms and leave the areas along the common border between Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, highlighted that the KRG has practically started the activities to draw the separatist parties away from the Iranian border.

“The parties have agreed on relocation to the camps that have been already set up in the provinces of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. They have completely approved the activities of the Kurdistan Regional Government,” the source stated.

Last week, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said at a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran that Baghdad was committed to a security pact with Iran to disarm anti-Iran armed groups based in the Kurdistan region.

Stressing that the Iraqi constitution does not allow any group to use Iraqi territory to attack other countries, Hussein said that the Baghdad government and the Kurdistan region are cooperating with each other in this regard and both stress the necessity of implementing the security agreement.

In March, Iran and Iraq signed a security agreement that includes coordination in protecting the border between the two countries in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.