Iraq and Iran Sign Deal to Tighten Border Security

BY REUTERS<
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Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani looks on as Iraq’s National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji and Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani sign the security agreement that includes coordination in protecting the common borders between the two countries, in Baghdad, Iraq, March 19, 2023. Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via REUTERS

Iraq and Iran signed a border security agreement on Sunday, a move Iraqi officials said aimed primarily at tightening the frontier with Iraq’s Kurdish region, where Tehran says armed Kurdish dissidents pose a threat to its security.<
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The joint security agreement includes coordination in “protecting the common borders between the two countries and consolidating cooperation in several security fields”, a statement from the Iraqi prime minister’s office said.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani signed the deal with Iraq’s National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji, in the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, the prime minister office said.

“Under the signed security deal, Iraq pledges it would not allow armed groups to use its territory in the Iraqi Kurdish region to launch any border-crossing attacks on neighbour Iran,” said an Iraqi security official who attended the signing.

The frontier came into renewed focus last year when Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched missile and drone attacks against Iranian Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq, accusing them of fomenting protests that were sparked by the death of a Iranian Kurdish woman while she was being held in police custody.