KRG's foreign relations minister downplays Iranian statements about military campaign in Iraq's Kurdistan

Shafaq News/ The minister of foreign relations in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Safeen Dizayee, downplayed the media reports about a potential Iranian military campaign against anti-Tehran Kurdish parties based in Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Dizayee's remarks came during a press conference that followed a meeting with the Netherlands' Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren in Erbil earlier today, Tuesday.

The minister said that the meeting touched upon the political and economic situation in the Kurdistan region and the challenges impeding its progress.

"The minister said that the region is a key factor in establishing stability in the Middle East," he said, "we are sparing no effort to keep it this way. The Kurdistan region has never been a threat to the national security of neighboring countries."

Dizayee called for sparing the people of Kurdistan and Iraq the burden of regional tension and respecting the country's sovereignty.

"Iran is an important country. In the past, it opened the door to refugees from the Kurdistan region. We have rooted and profound ties with it," he said, playing down statements made by certain bodies in Iran about a potential land invasion of the Kurdistan region as "unfounded".