Iran did not inform Erbil of attacked residency’s supposed threat: KRG Minister

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Minister of Interior Rebar Ahmed said on Thursday that Iran did not provide any information to Kurdish authorities that the civilian site they struck with missiles on Sunday posed any kind of threat.

The Kurdish minister’s remark was given during a press conference in Baghdad with the Iraqi Deputy Speaker of Parliament, where they discussed the barrage of missiles hitting Erbil.

Reporting to the Iraqi Parliament’s fact-finding committee, Minister Ahmed presented the KRG’s official stance on the incident and other security details relating to the attack.

The Kurdish official said the attack was a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, which is “one and undividable”.

He said that the allegations of Erbil hosting foreign military bases are baseless and a “cover” to hide Iranian aggression.

“The Iranians did not inform [us previously] that the site posed a threat to neighboring countries,” Ahmed said, adding that Iran is a “neighbor” and that both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have mutually beneficial economic and trade relations with the country.

Iraq’s First Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hakim Al-Zamly denied that Iraq harbors any external “intelligence agency” or foreign agents threatening other countries’ security.

The parliament’s committee recently visited Erbil’s impacted sites to personally survey the damages and investigate the matter.

A number of Iraqi officials will be invited by the committee to present their findings on the incident, Al-Zamly said.

The attacks drew widespread international and regional condemnation from the Kurdistan Region’s allies, many of whom repeated that the bombardments were an outrageous violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

While visiting the destroyed civilian residence hit by the missiles along with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani called for the formation of an “international committee” to launch investigations into the matter.

While visiting the destroyed civilian residence with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani called for the formation of an “international committee” to launch investigations into the matter.