PKK allowed in area but not Kurdish Iranian opposition parties
SULAYMANIHAY – The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) has tightened the Kurdistan Region’s borders with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and ordered Iranian Kurdish opposition parties not to use the area for military operations against Iran.
Ahmed Salehi, a politburo member of the Iranian Kurdish Communist Party, told BasNews that PUK officials were pressured by the Iranian government to secure the borders against the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
Salehi pointed out that an ideal situation is yet to come for his party to carry out military operations against Iran.
Akam News, an agency linked to the Iranian government, reported last week that Komala withdrew from three military bases near the border area between the Kurdistan Region and Iran. They had been stationed in the area prior to the Iran nuclear deal.
The agency commended KRG officials in Sulaymaniyah for isolating the Komala Peshmerga in their camps.
However, a senior Komala official, Ata Nasr rejected the reports and said the Komala forces are allowed to patrol in the area and they were not stationed on the border. “The PUK never blocks our path into Iran,” Nasr said.
BasNews has learned that Iranian artillery units recently shelled border areas near Penjwen in the south of Kurdistan region, setting fire to pasture lands and vineyards in the area, but causing no casualties.
A source told BasNews that the security forces in Sulaymaniyah recently arrested five Komala Peshmerga and kept them in custody for a week. They were later freed on the proviso that they halt military operations against Iran.
During clashes between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) in May this year, and following the Turkish airstrikes on the PKK guerrillas in the Kurdistan Region, which killed nine civilians, the PUK didn’t clear its positions, despite the presence of the guerrillas in the area.
