MESOP NEWS : TEHRAN MULLAHS RULES IN KURDISTAN ? – Saudi Arabia consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan should be closed, Iranian commander warns

15 Jan 2017 – HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— An Iranian top commander warned on Friday that the consulate of Saudi Arabia should leave the Kurdish capital of Erbil because their presence in Kurdistan Region destabilizes peace and causes chaos, he claimed.

Mohammad Hossein Rajabi, the commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in the Kurdish province of Kurdistan also raised questions about the presence of more than 30 regional and international diplomatic representations in Erbil, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported.

Falah Mustafa, the foreign minister for Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said that the KRG was surprised that a neighboring country is trying to interfere in the internal affairs of Kurdistan, while hoping that they will not bring their problems to Erbil.

“The question is that what the Saudi Consulate is doing in Kurdistan?” Rajabi asked as he explained that Saudi Arabia does not share a border with Kurdistan Region, therefore there is no need for them to be based in Kurdistan. “How many Arab people are there so that they need to provide services for them from there? That is why there is no justification for their presence, because their goal is to cause chaos and destabilize peace.”

“It is true that we protect [our] security, but the Saudi Consulate is betraying the people of Iraqi Kurdistan, too.” Rajabi claimed before warning that “They have to leave [Erbil] because the people of Iraq do not need them.”

Last November a top military aide to the Iranian Supreme Leader Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi warned officials of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, specially Massoud Barzani, and his colleagues against cooperation with Iran’s enemies.

“The Barzanis allow the Saudis’ consulate in Northern Iraq to supply weapons to Iranian anti-revolutionary forces and we warn them in this regard and the Barzanis should know that they owe to Iran,” he added.

Iran has a consulate in Erbil, and another in Sulaimani, while Saudi Arabia has only one consulate in the capital Erbil, opened last February.

“The presence of 30 consulates in Iraqi Kurdistan is not normal,” Rajabi noted, “they are not there to conduct state affairs or serve the host people, but rather many of them are there for espionage, cowardly act and mobilization.”

“We are surprised that a neighboring country is trying to interfere in our internal affairs and dictate ways of doing things for us,” Musafa told Rudaw, “We are respecting our relations with our neighbors, and we hope for this relation to be marked by mutual respect and mutual understanding.”

Mustafa repeated the KRG policy that they do not want to become part of the wider regional rivalries between the Sunni majority Saudi Arabia and the Shiite majority Iran.

“We are not a threat to any country, and the proof to that is our past. We are open in our policy, and we will not become a part of a regional or global rivalry. And if [certain] countries have rivalries, we hope that they will not bring that to Kurdistan Region, because we are concerned about the peace, stability, and welfare of our people.”

A double bomb attack blamed on Iranian regime last December kills seven Kurdish militants near the headquarters of an Iranian Kurdish opposition KDPI party in Iraqi Kurdistan. www.mesop.de