Agreement reached with Iraq to ‘disarm, relocate’ terrorists based in Kurdistan region: Iran

Speaking to reporters at a weekly press conference on Monday, Kanaani said the government of Iraq has undertaken, under an agreement with Iran, to disarm the armed terrorist groups on the Iraqi soil, throw them out of their military bases, and relocate them to camps determined by Iraq until the end of the current Iranian month of Shahrivar (September 19).

He noted that the government of Baghdad has communicated the decision to the KRG officials for implementation, warning that the deadline of September 19 will not be extended by any means.

Describing the relations between Iran and Iraq as friendly and based upon good neighborliness, Kanaani stressed the presence of terrorists in the Iraqi Kurdistan region is a dark stain on the bilateral ties.

“We expect this dark stain to be removed. Security matters to Iran,” he continued.

The IRGC launched several rounds of military strikes on the positions of separatist groups in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region in 2022. The IRGC stressed that Iran on many occasions has warned officials of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region about the terrorist groups’ activities in the region but they have failed to pay necessary attention to the warnings and take proper measures to prevent terrorist moves.

Elsewhere in the presser, Kanaani said the charge d’affaires of the Swiss embassy in Tehran, representing US interests in Iran, has been summoned by the Iranian Foreign Ministry following the unloading of hundreds of thousands of barrels of seized Iranian oil sitting in a Greek tanker off the coast of Texas.

The US Navy unloaded a tanker of stolen Iranian oil worth around $56 million off the Texas port, brushing off warnings from Iran.

For months, American oil firms had resisted the temptation of touching the 800,000-barrel tanker for fear of Iranian retaliation in the Persian Gulf waters.

But as Iran was marking the 70th anniversary of the CIA-engineered military coup against Iran’s then-PM Mohammad Mosaddeq this month, the US Navy briskly transferred the oil to another tanker.

The Marshall Islands-flagged Suez Rajan tanker carrying Iranian oil was illegally seized by Washington in April under the guise of “a sanctions-enforcement operation” and guided toward the Texas port.

Interestingly, it came days after a group of US senators and House representatives, at the behest of the Israeli lobby in Washington, began mounting pressure on the Joe Biden administration to unload the tanker, without considering its possible repercussions.

It’s not the first time though that Americans have resorted to such foolhardy adventurism, stealing oil and blatantly bragging about it. The quintessential US banditry and thuggery have been on display on many occasions in recent years.

In May last year, Americans seized a Russia-operated ship, the Pegas, carrying Iranian oil off the shore of Karystos near Greece to dispatch the oil cargo to the US but the Greek court ruled against the move, refusing to bow down to the hegemon’s pressure.

In February 2021, Americans seized a tanker carrying Iranian oil off the coast of the Emirati city of Fujairah and sold more than a million barrels of oil confiscated from it for $110 million, or $55 a barrel.