Iranian military chief says Iraq's steps in relocating anti-Tahran groups from border areas is not enough

Shafaq News/ The Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, General Mohammad Bagheri, described the Iraqi government's move to relocate Iranian opposition groups from the border regions in the Kurdistan region as an "important step."

However, he emphasized that this action alone is not sufficient.

Bagheri made these remarks during a speech at the commencement ceremony of the academic year at the Higher National Defense University, attended by the Iranian Minister of Interior and the commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq.

He stated, "There is no justification for the presence of Iranian separatist groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, engaging in various terrorist attacks inside Iran," as reported by the Iranian news agency "Fars."

He continued, "What compels us to deploy a significant number of forces on the border is the fact that Iraqi officials also emphasize the necessity of resolving this issue. An agreement was reached in March between the Secretaries of the Iranian and Iraqi Supreme National Security Councils to completely disarm these groups."

Bagheri emphasized that "while the Iraqi government and honorable officials have made efforts and relocated these separatist groups from their positions near our borders to some extent, our main agreement was not simply a tactical relocation of separatist groups to points further from our borders. What we wanted, and still desire, is the complete disarmament of these groups."