MESOP : PREVENTED BY TEHRAN – NOT BY KRG ! – Iran Presence Prevents Iranian Kurdish Peshmerga Fighting in Jalawla

24.08.2014 – Kurdo Shaban – BasNews, Erbil – Iranian Kurdish fighters that wanted to fight IS in the Jalawla and Khanaqen regions have been prevented by the continued Iranian presence.Recently a group of Iranian Kurdish Peshmerga, responding to a request from the Kurdistan Region Peshmerga Ministry, headed toward the Garmian region to fight Islamic State (IS) militants. According to reports, Iranian forces in the region prevented the Kurdish Iranian opposition forces from going to the area.

Anwar Muhammad, a senior member of the Iranian Kurdistan communist Party told BasNews that after they informed the Peshmerga Ministry of their willingness to go to fight and assist Peshmerga forces, Kurdish authorities approved their request and asked them to go to the Kirkuk and Garmian front-lines.

“Last Friday along with the Peshmerga our forces went to the Kirkuk frontline to fight IS militants”, said Muhammad. However, a source from the Peshmerga forces in those regions told BasNews that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) wanted the Iranian Kurdish parties to be careful when going to those areas especially when close to the Iranian borders and in areas where there are known to be Iranian forces. Muhammad rejected those reports and said Iraqi Kurdish parties had been warned about going near the Jalawla and Khanaqen areas to fight IS insurgents. “When we moved our forced toward Jalawla the head commander of the Jalawla frontlines told us to return to our old location,” added the senior member of the Iranian Kurdistan communist Party. “For sure if we had stayed on the Jalawla frontlines we would have had to have been aware of our surroundings, not just because of the presence of Iranian forces, but also from the Iraqi army which could have posed a similar danger to our Peshmerga,” said Muhammad. Since the start of IS attacks in recent months in Northern Iraq, reports of Iranian forces fighting in the Diyala Province have been circulating although the Iranian government has rejected such speculation.