Masoud Haider, an advisor to Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iraq, has called on the international community to supply Iraqi Kurdistan and Baghdad with an air defense system.
Haider made his demand in wake of Iran bombing Kurdish areas in Iraq in recent days.
“Missile and drone attacks are an infringement on the sovereignty of the Iraqi state and endanger the lives of civilians in Kurdistan. Condemnation does not prevent their recurrence. The international community should help and sell Erbil and Baghdad an air defense system to deter these attacks,” said Haider.
“Missiles are deterred by missiles, not by condemnations,” he added.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had issued a statement on Monday strongly condemning the new attacks carried out by Iran.
“The repeated Iranian violations affecting the sovereignty of Iraq and the Kurdistan region of Iraq are unjustified and constitute a flagrant violation of international norms and good neighborly relations,” the KRG said in a statement.
It also urged Iran to “stop its campaign against the Kurdistan region.”
“The repeated attacks carried out by Iranian with missiles and drones on the Kurdistan region are a violation of Iraq's sovereignty and an act that contravenes international covenants and laws that regulate relations between countries,” the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The lands of Iraq “are not a base or a corridor to harm any of the neighboring countries,” it stressed.
“Iraq is also not an arena for conflicts and settling scores for external parties,” the statement added.
Also on Monday, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) called for the cessation of the “repeated attacks violating Iraqi sovereignty.”
“Whatever external score a neighboring country is seeking to settle, the use of established diplomatic instruments is the only way forward,” UNAMI said in a statement.
On Sunday night, Iran launched new strikes targeting Iranian Kurdish opposition factions stationed in Iraqi Kurdistan, killing one of their members, less than a week after similar strikes targeting these factions.
Tehran accuses Kurdish opposition factions of provoking demonstrations in Iran.
The counter-terrorism department of Iraqi Kurdistan had earlier said Iran’s “Revolutionary Guard Corps have again bombarded Iranian Kurdish parties” late Sunday, without mentioning if there were casualties.
