TEHRAN – Ali Bagheri Kani, the deputy foreign minister of Iran for political affairs, has arrived in the Iraqi capital for talks on political issues. 

In Baghdad, Bagheri Kani was to attend the fifth meeting of the Iran-Iraq Political Committee. The last meeting of this kind was held four years ago. He met with Iraqi President Abdullatif Rashid. 

The meeting comes after Iran demanded that the Kurdish officials of Iraq clarify media reports that they had inked a deal with the U.S. to receive air defense systems. 

Spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry Nasser Kanaani told a weekly news briefing in late June that the Islamic Republic is waiting to see the explanation of Iraqi Kurdish officials.

“Based on the good neighborly relations between the governments of Iran and Iraq and also based on the security agreement between the two countries, we expect the Iraqi government to act in the same framework. Both the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional authorities should act responsibly and adhere to maintaining the neighborly policy in relations with Iran,” Kanaani said when asked about the secret agreement between Iraqi Kurdistan and the U.S.

He added, “We have never trusted the U.S. government and we will never trust it because it has pursued its relations to create tension between countries. The Iraqi government will definitely clarify this issue and the regional authorities should also explain in this regard and we should see what their explanation is in this regard.”

The remarks come after Iraqi media reported that the U.S. has reached a deal with Iraqi Kurdistan to provide the autonomous region with advanced air defense systems in what American observers described as a move to protect the region from alleged Iranian threats.

Iran has also called on the Iraqi federal government to implement a security deal that aims to disarm Iranian Kurdish militants that have taken refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan. 

In mid-June, Iran launched a military operation in Kurdistan Province to eliminate members of the counter-revolutionary groups. The operation was launched in Sarvabad County on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan.
In late May, Qassem Al-Araji, the Iraqi national security advisor, visited Tehran for talks over border security. “Under the direction of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the National Security Adviser is heading to Tehran at the head of a security delegation to discuss measures to secure the borders between Iraq and Iran,” Al-Araji said in a statement on Facebook.

A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has said Iraq has made a commitment to disarm and drive out anti-Iranian militants operating in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

“We are waiting for the Iraqi government to keep its promises, and we have given them a chance to get rid of the terrorists. Otherwise, and if nothing is done, the IRGC strikes would continue,” Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the IRGC Ground Force, stated in May. 

In Tehran, Al-Araji met with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Ahmadian told the visiting Iraqi official that Tehran expect Baghdad to expel counter-revolutionary elements in accordance with the Iran-Iraq security agreement.