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Tehran: Baghdad Has Until September to Disarm Kurdish Opposition Parties

Bagheri speaks to the Iranian state television in Mashhad on Tuesday (Iranian TV)
Bagheri speaks to the Iranian state television in Mashhad on Tuesday (Iranian TV)
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Tehran: Baghdad Has Until September to Disarm Kurdish Opposition Parties

Bagheri speaks to the Iranian state television in Mashhad on Tuesday (Iranian TV)
Bagheri speaks to the Iranian state television in Mashhad on Tuesday (Iranian TV)

Chief of Staff of Iran’s armed forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri said on Tuesday that the Iraqi government has until September to disarm Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region, threatening to use military action if Baghdad fails to meet the deadline.

“If the deadline passes and they remain armed or carry out any operation, our operations against those groups will definitely reoccur more severely,” Bagheri told the state television. “Armed secessionist groups exist in northern Iraq, which causes insecurity at our borders.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s Mehr news agency said Bagheri blamed some neighboring countries for failing to “favorably” fulfill their commitments to ensuring border security.

Speaking at an annual conference attended by ground force commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the northeastern city of Mashhad, he said a number of armed separatist groups in northern Iraq have caused some insecurities along the common border with Iran.

Bagheri said that Tehran had suspended cross-border strikes after Baghdad agreed to a September deadline to disarm the Kurdish opposition groups and secure the border regions.

Iran accuses Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region of fueling the nationwide protest movement in Iran last September and inciting unrest in the country.

In March, the Iraqi and Iranian governments signed a border protection deal in Baghdad, that includes coordination in protecting the common borders in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

In May, IRGC sent heavy weapons and additional personnel to the border, while sources said they are preparing to launch artillery into Iraqi Kurdistan.

Following the announcement, Iraqi National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji rushed to Tehran, where he met with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

The two sides discussed the security agreement signed between both countries.

The Supreme National Security Council of Iran has handled sensitive files related to some neighboring countries, including the Iraq file, since 2003.

The Council is the highest security apparatus in the country, and its decisions are approved by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

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Russia Says Last Ukrainian Troops Expelled from Kursk Region, Kyiv Denies Assertion

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
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Russia Says Last Ukrainian Troops Expelled from Kursk Region, Kyiv Denies Assertion

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, 26 April 2025, to receive a report on the completion of a military operation to liberate Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (EPA/Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/Kremlin)

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed on Saturday what he said was the complete failure of an offensive by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region after Moscow said they had been expelled from the last village they had been holding.

Russia also confirmed for the first time that North Korean soldiers have been fighting alongside Russian troops in Kursk, with the chief of the military General Staff praising their "heroism" in helping to drive out the Ukrainians.

However, Kyiv denied that its forces had been expelled from Kursk and said they were also still operating in Belgorod, another Russian region bordering Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces seized a swathe of territory in Kursk region last August in a surprise incursion that embarrassed Putin. Russian forces, later reinforced by North Korean troops, have been trying ever since to drive them out.

Putin, speaking amid intensified diplomatic efforts by the Trump administration to end the Ukraine conflict, said the expulsion of Ukrainian forces from Russian soil opened the way for further Russian successes inside Ukraine.

"The Kyiv regime's adventure has completely failed," Putin said in video footage released by the Kremlin that showed him receiving a report from the head of Russia's general staff, Valery Gerasimov.

"The full defeat of the enemy in the Kursk border region creates conditions for further successful actions by our forces on other important parts of the front," Putin added.

Gerasimov told Putin that the last occupied settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, had been "liberated from Ukrainian units" on Saturday.

"Thus, the defeat of the armed formations of the Ukrainian armed forces that had invaded the Kursk region has been completed," Gerasimov said.

The Ukrainian military, in a statement later posted on social media platform Telegram, said its forces were continuing their operations in some districts of Kursk region.

Ukraine also denied Gerasimov's assertion that all Ukrainian "sabotage groups" had been "liquidated" in Belgorod region, where Kyiv's forces launched an incursion last month.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield assertions of either side.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the armed forces were now helping authorities in the Kursk region to restore "peaceful life" and to remove mines planted there.

NORTH KOREANS

Gerasimov praised the North Korean officers and soldiers' contribution in Kursk, saying they had shown "high professionalism, fortitude, courage and heroism", fulfilling combat tasks "shoulder to shoulder" with Russian servicemen.

North Korea sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, Ukrainian officials said. Lacking armored vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but adapted quickly.

Russia had previously neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troops in Kursk.

Russia's military cooperation with North Korea has grown rapidly since Moscow became internationally isolated after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

Kyiv says North Korea has supplied Russia with vast amounts of artillery shells as well as rocket systems, thousands of troops and ballistic missiles, which Moscow began using for strikes against Ukraine at the end of 2023.

Russia and North Korea have denied weapons transfers, which would violate UN embargoes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had hoped his forces' seizure of Russian territory would give him a bargaining chip in any future talks to end the war in his country.

Zelenskiy held what the White House described as a "very productive" meeting with US President Donald Trump on Saturday in Rome, where both leaders were attending the funeral of Pope Francis.

Trump is pressuring Zelenskiy to agree to give up some Ukrainian territory to help end the three-year war that has caused large-scale casualties and devastation in cities, towns and villages across Ukraine.