No evidence to prove Iranian involvement in the bomb attack near Erbil

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister on Wednesday condemned the bombing at a Kurdish-Iranian opposition headquarter near Erbil, stating that there is no evidence who is behind the attack.

The KRG PM Nechirvan Barzani in an interview with BBC Persian expressed his concern over the attack at the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (PDK) political bureau.

"We consider it an attack on the Kurdistan Region," he said.

Iran is suspected to be responsible for the bombings but the PM refused said there is no evidence is not at hand.

“There is no evidence at hand to prove Iran’s involvement in the attack but the the speculation are rising,” PM Barzani said.

During the interview, the KRG PM talked about several other topics including the presence of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Shingal, the presence of forces in the liberated areas, the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq and the situation of Kurds in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava).

Asked about the PKK presence in Shingal, PM Barzani urged PKK to withdraw from Shingal, stating that, “We believe their presence does not serve the stability in the area and will inflame tensions.”

“We expect them to withdraw from the area, but so far we have not seen any practical steps from their side to withdraw,” Barzani added.

Barzani talked about sending the Peshmerga forces to Kobane when it was on the verge of falling into the control of Islamic State (IS), saying “We sent the Peshmerga forces and when the city was liberated from IS and the danger faded away, we withdrew our forces upon request.”

“We expect the same from them in Shingal,” Barzani said.  

Regarding the relations between the Kurdistan Region and Rojava administration KRG PM said that we only call upon the ruling party to have agreements with all other Kurdish parties, but no other political parties have been given the opportunity to work freely.

Barzani said that the Kurdistan Region borders are open for the humanitarian purposes and we are currently working on mechanisms to expand border activities between two sides as according to him both the Region and Rojava administration will benefit from it.

On the presence of the Peshmerga forces in the liberated areas, Barzani emphasized the urgency of having the Peshmerga protecting the liberated areas adding that “It is going to be through negotiations with Baghdad.”

Speaking about Turkey-Iraq relations, Barzani said that due to our relations, we have been able to play a positive role to approach both sides.

Although Turkey understands the Iraqi concerns over the presence of Turkish troops, Barzani said, there is no timeline for the withdrawal of the troops but both sides will have more negotiations on that.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany