In recent days, commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) threatened attacks on the Iranian Kurdish opposition parties based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The warning came from the commander of the IRGC, General Mohammad Pakpour, who vowed a “decisive and crushing” response against the Kurdish parties.
This morning, Thursday, September 9th, warplanes and suicidal drones of the Iranian regime bombarded positions of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) near Choman and Sadikan, sub-districts of the Erbil province in the Kurdistan Region.
The Washington Kurdish Institute (WKI) condemns Iran’s aggression in the strongest terms. We call upon Iraq’s Federal Government, the United Nations (UN), the United States government, and the international community to stop Iranian aggression against exiled Iranian opposition groups.
The Iranian regime’s discriminatory policies against the Kurds since its establishment in 1979 have forced the Kurdish opposition parties to take refuge in the Kurdistan Region. Under international laws and norms, Kurdish parties must be protected from repeated brutal acts of the regime. All of the Kurdish parties, including the KDPI, have called for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish issue in Iran but their demands have not been heeded and they have instead faced continued aggression by the regime.
These attacks will further undermine Iraq’s sovereignty, especially that of the Kurdistan Region, which has faced brutal assaults by the Iranian regime and its proxies in Iraq. The Iraqi government should be vocal and work earnestly to stop any further attack on the Kurdistan Region and the Iranian Kurdish parties. The UN and the United States have a moral obligation to prevent attacks on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, especially those committed by a regime that has been a destabilizing factor in the Middle East.
The Washington Kurdish Institute
September 9, 2021