Following a series of airstrikes by Iran and Turkey against opposition organizations in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, Baghdad announced on Wednesday announced that it will redeploy federal troops along its borders with the two nations.
In a statement following a government security meeting presided over by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the nation said that authorities had decided to “establish a plan to redeploy Iraqi border guards… along the border with Iran and Turkey”.
According to the statement, the effort will be carried out “in coordination with the government of the Kurdistan region and the peshmerga ministry” referring to the Kurdish regional forces.
Currently, the peshmerga are in charge of policing the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan; however, they are subject to directions from Baghdad’s federal defence ministry.
AFP reports that the announcement appears to be a response to Iran, which had earlier this week expressed hope that the Iraqi government would deploy “border guards at the common border so that Iran does not have to take other deterrent measures to repel threats.”
The recent spate of strikes follows the unrest over the death of 22-year-old Mahasa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s so-called “morality police”.
Tehran has blamed “outside powers and exiled Kurdish groups” for stoking the wave of protests.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the foreign minister of Iran, issued a warning earlier in the day, saying that the country would continue to take action against foreign “threats”. He added that Tehran’s forces would continue operations inside Iraq’s Kurdistan until Baghdad’s national forces were deployed on the border and “we would no longer need to act to defend our territorial integrity.”