Iraq has defended a “memorandum of understanding” signed this week with Iran, stressing that it is merely a continuation of a previous border cooperation deal and not a broader security agreement, as some reports have suggested.
The document was signed on Monday during a visit to Baghdad by Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council © Mena Today
Iraq has defended a “memorandum of understanding” signed this week with Iran, stressing that it is merely a continuation of a previous border cooperation deal and not a broader security agreement, as some reports have suggested.
In a statement late Wednesday, the office of Iraq’s National Security Advisor Qassem al-Araji recalled that in March 2023 Baghdad and Tehran signed an accord “on border security and measures to neutralize the activities of the Iranian Kurdish opposition” based in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
That 2023 partnership has now been “converted” into a memorandum of understanding “with the same content, covering border security, security cooperation, and all matters relating to the five Iranian Kurdish opposition parties,” the statement explained.
The document was signed on Monday during a visit to Baghdad by Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“There is no security agreement between the two countries,” the Iraqi statement insisted, pushing back against Iranian state media claims that the “main objective” of Larijani’s trip was to sign a bilateral security pact.
The 2023 accord ended Iranian bombardments targeting Iranian Kurdish armed groups in northern Iraq. Baghdad subsequently disarmed these groups and relocated them away from the border into designated camps.
Larijani’s visit, which also included a stop in Lebanon, comes at a time of heightened regional instability, with the Gaza war now in its 22nd month and conflicts with Israel weakening Tehran’s influence and that of its regional allies.
Inside Iraq, political divisions have emerged over a proposed law to formalize the role of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known locally as the Hachd al-Chaabi.
The legislation has raised U.S. concerns that it could strengthen Iranian influence and cement the power of former paramilitary units close to Tehran.
“We support genuine Iraqi sovereignty, not legislation that would turn Iraq into a satellite state of Iran,” the U.S. State Department reiterated on August 12, adding that Washington opposes “any legislation incompatible with the objectives of our security partnership and that undermines the consolidation of Iraq’s existing security institutions.”
No group in Lebanon is permitted to bear arms or rely on foreign backing, President Joseph Aoun told a senior Iranian official on Wednesday, days after the cabinet approved the objectives of a U.S.-backed roadmap to disarm the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group.
France, Germany and Britain have told the United Nations they are ready to reinstate sanctions on Iran if it does not return to negotiations with the international community over its nuclear programme, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Iranian police arrested as many as 21,000 "suspects" during the country's 12-day war with Israel in June, a law enforcement spokesperson said on Tuesday, according to state media.
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