Iran’s Shelling Of Iraqi Kurdistan Sparks Global Outcry
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s latest round of shelling of Iraqi Kurdistan region has drawn condemnation by Western countries as well as the Iraqi government.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s latest round of shelling of Iraqi Kurdistan region has drawn condemnation by Western countries as well as the Iraqi government.
In a Monday phone call with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein decried the attacks as a violation of Iraq's sovereignty, saying that the continuation of such unilateral measures is "dangerous".
Moreover, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani also condemned the “violations” of Iraq and its Kurdish region’s sovereignty, following IRGC’s attacks on the headquarters of Iranian-Kurdish groups, some of which are armed.
According to Iran International’s correspondent, the RGC targeted the main base of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in capital Erbil and Komala in Sulaymaniyah with drones and missiles.
The PDKI said a senior party member and a Peshmerga militiaman were killed and several other Peshmerga forces injured in the Monday attacks.
The Canadian Embassy in Iraq, the US Consulate General in Erbil, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the German Consulate General in Erbil have so far condemned the renewed attacks on the Kurdistan Region.
The German Consulate-General in Erbil said that Berlin urges Iran to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq. “The attacks have to stop immediately,” it said.
Since the current wave of protests began in Iran following the death in custody of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa (Jina) Amini, the Islamic Republic has intensified its attacks on Kurdish dissident groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan, apparently aimed at intimidating the Kurds. In addition to PDKI and Komala, IRGC launched artillery and suicide drone attacks against positions of other Kurdish groups opposed to the Islamic Republic such as Parti Azadi Kurdistan, aka PAK (Kurdistan Freedom Party).
The US also strongly condemned Iran’s “violations of Iraqi sovereignty”, calling on the Islamic Republic to stop attacking its neighbor and the people of Iraq. “We stand with the Iraqi government’s leaders in Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdistan region,” the Consulate General in Erbil said on its twitter account.
“Iraq should not be used as an arena to settle scores and its territorial integrity must be respected,” UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said, adding that “Dialogue between Iraq and Iran over mutual security concerns is the only way forward.”
Amini was from the Kurdish town of Saqqez and was arrested and beaten during a visit to Tehran. After her death in hospital, her hometown and other Kurdish cities were the first to launch antigovernment protests.
Late in October, the Iranian Army's Ground Force also launched a three-day war game around the northwestern town of Piranshahr in West Azarbaijan province bordering Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iran’s last barrage of missile and drone strikes against the groups in September led to the death of 14 people, including women and children, and wounding of 58 other people near Erbil and Sulaymaniyah.
The Islamic Republic calls the Kurdish armed groups in the western provinces of Iran, "terrorist groups" or "anti-revolutionary" but these groups say that the goal of their armed campaign is "defending the rights of the Kurds".
Generally, the Kurdish parties − including Komala and the KDPI − favor Kurdish autonomy within a federal Iran.
On November 6, IRNA News Agency reported that 227 members of the parliament asked the judiciary to deal “decisively with the inciters of the recent riots.”
“In a statement, Iranian lawmakers called for severe punishment of those who incited the recent riots urging Qisas – retaliation in kind—for moharebs,” IRNA reported.
Mohareb, which literally means warrior in Arabic, is used in Islamic law or sharia to mean ‘enemy of God’ which carries the death penalty.
“We, the representatives of this nation, ask all state officials, including the Judiciary, to treat those, who waged war [against the Islamic establishment] and attacked people’s life and property like the Daesh [ISIS], in a way that would serve as a good lesson in the shortest possible time,” state-run Press TV quoted lawmakers as saying.
The statement soon went viral, leaving in its wake a torrent of public criticism both in Iran and abroad. Germany, France and the European Union toughened their positions toward Tehran’s gross violations of human rights, threatening to sanction all the 227 lawmakers.
Abbas Abdi, a reformist politician and pundit in Tehran, slammed the letter saying in a tweet “it was not unexpected that the ones, who have entered the parliament with a low voter turnout, to call for the execution of the protesters.”
The outspoken Sunni Imam of Zahedan Friday prayer, Molavi Abdolhamid, also called the parliamentarian’s letter “shameful” asking them during his sermon on Friday, “Do other parliaments in the world act the same as you did?”
With criticisms mounting, Asr-e Iran daily said it was heard in the corridors of the parliament that “the MPs did not sign this letter.”
Finally on Saturday, ICANA News Agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s parliament, claimed the letter was “basically fake”.
“In the last few hours, a letter signed by 227 parliamentarians has been published on social media. In this letter, addressed to Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, it has been asked to classify the case of the arrested persons as Moharebeh (War against God). Let it be known that the nature of this letter is based on lies,” added ICANA.
ICANA did not address the question that if the letter was fake, why the official government news agency IRNA reported it.
Hossein Jalali, an MP, told ISNA on Sunday that “I signed a letter to deal with those who committed murder during recent events, but I heard a second letter was signed and published which is fake.”
Jalali’s remarks confirm that a letter signed by him and other lawmakers had the same content, urging judiciary to call protesters ‘mohareb’ and execute them in retaliation.
Seemingly, the strong reaction by EU politicians and their intention to sanction all the signatories of the letter have now forced them to withdraw from their previous hardline position, denying such a letter.
On Thursday, German member of European Parliament, Hannah Neumann, vehemently slammed Iranian lawmakers for demanding the execution of protesters, saying all these MPs must be sanctioned.
On the other hand, signals by officials asking to remove internet restrictions fuels speculation that the clerical regime is showing leniency amid domestic and international pressure.
Two Parliamentarians on Saturday said, “Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, on behalf of a large number of MPs is pursuing the removal the ban on Instagram and WhatsApp,” adopted after protests began.
Since the current wave of demonstrations began in mid-September, following the death in custody of a young woman, more and more athletes have expressed solidarity with the people either in bold public statements or through different forms of disobedience, such as not singing the Islamic Republic’s national anthem during matches.
In less than a month, the pace of the athletes showing support for the protests has accelerated as the Iranian football, beach football, waterpolo, basketball, and sitting volleyball teams refused to sing along with the anthem, which is customary in almost all international competitions. Now with the biggest sporting event on the horizon, the regime is resorting to whatever it can to stifle the voices of dissent.
Authorities have made serious threats against athletes and other celebrities to stop them from public displays of solidarity with protesters but to no avail.
Threatening to remove players from the national squad, Ahmad Rastineh, the spokesman of the parliament’s cultural committee, said on Sunday that "if a player does not have a proper understanding” of the current affairs, it is not necessary to keep them in the national outfit.
Earlier in the month, the beach football federation of the Islamic Republic threatened the players of the national squad for their acts of solidarity with the antigovernment protests.
The national team players did not cheer or celebrate after winning the cup following their final victory against Brazil and also refused to sing the national anthem of the Islamic Republic at the beginning of their semifinal match against the UAE.
During the final, Iranian striker Saeed Piramoun expressed his solidarity with Iranian protesters by miming the hair cutting gesture after scoring a goal. The gesture has become an international symbol of solidarity with Iranian women and the protest movement with many international athletes and celebrities posting images of themselves re-enacting the move. Islamic Republic officials also issued a threatening message to the United Arab Emirates that hosted the Beach Soccer Intercontinental Cup.
A new trending act of solidarity that is catching on in the past several days, is the reenactment of a photo of one the protesters killed by security forces in the Baluch-majority province of Sistan and Baluchestan.
The iconic photo, which is from an earlier event, shows Khodayar Lojei handcuffed to a post while a glass of water is placed near him but with a distance he cannot reach. Several football and futsal players sat in the same position instead of cheering after scoring a goal while another player put a symbolic glass of water near them.
Also on Sunday, Andrea Stramaccioni, the former Italian coach of the popular football club Esteqlal, said in an Instagram story that he was approached by many Iranian state TV sport programs to appear in their shows as a guest during the World Cup, noting that he rejected the offers because the state broadcaster is suppressing the voice of people.
Addressing the Iranians, he said, “My heart is with you and refusing participation in programs and television you don’t approve of is the least I can do to support your brave movement. Do not lose your hope because the Iranian people we saw deserve a lot more than what they already have.”
During a press conference after the Iranian basketball team’s match with the Chinese squad, several journalists walked out as a show of solidarity with their peers arrested for reporting on Islamic Republic’s deadly violence against protesters.
"Our colleagues have been arrested for some time and are now in prison. We cannot [continue our work] until they are released... We have decided to leave this place. We are not spies or criminals. We are journalists. We are only journalists; sport journalists," said one of the reporters before leaving the room.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Saturday that Paris is concerned over the incarceration of two other citizens urging Tehran to immediately release them and provide them with consular protection.
Colonna made the comments in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper about the new development, which would seemingly bring about a further deterioration in mutual relations.
She reminded the Islamic Republic of its international obligations warning the if the goal behind the detention is to blackmail France, “then it cannot work.”
Human rights organizations accuse Iran of a systematic policy of hostage taking over four decades from the earliest period of the Islamic republic after the ouster of the Shah, starting with the 1979-1981 siege at the US embassy in Tehran.
Tehran denies any policy of hostage taking and insists all foreigners are arrested and tried according to legal process. However, it has frequently shown readiness for prisoner exchanges and participated in swaps in the past.
Most trials of political cases, including detained Western detainees are without due process of law and based on trumped up charges.
In her interview, Colonna however noted that her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian “has committed to respect the prisoners’ right of access.”
Her comments come a day after French President Emmanuel Macron expressed solidarity with Iranian freedom-seeking protesters calling their movement a “revolution”.
In early October, France accused the Iranian regime of “dictatorial practices” after Iran’s state TV aired the forced confessions of two French nationals arrested in the Middle Eastern country ruled by its 83-year-old anti-West ruler, Ali Khamenei.
In the video of the forced confessions, one of the two French nationals - Cecile Kohler - said they were in Iran to “prepare the ground for the revolution and the overthrow of the regime of Islamic Iran.”
Iran’s state media are infamous for purported confessions by prisoners in politically charged cases. Such prisoners are held without due process of law and usually cannot choose their own defense attorney.
On Friday, Le Figaro newspaper reported that the two nationals had been arrested prior to the start of anti-government protests in September over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Ties between France and Iran have soured recently as efforts to revive 2015 nuclear talks in which Paris is one of the parties have come to a standstill.
Following the uprising against their authoritarian government after killing of Amini in police custody, the EU imposed new sanctions on Iran following similar measures by the United States, Canada and Britain.
A new round of European Union sanctions for human rights violations by Tehran will also be approved at a foreign ministers' meeting on Monday, two diplomats told Reuters.
The sanctions are set to target 31 individuals and entities and would freeze their assets and imposing travel bans.
“France has also proposed new designations for those who would sell drones to Iran and to sanction people involved in the export of electronic components for drones,” one of the diplomats said.
The identity of the two new French detainees was not immediately clear, but Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, whose confessions earlier aired on the Iranian TV, have been arbitrarily detained since May 2022.
Fariba Adelkhah, is another Iranian-born woman, who was arrested in 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison for “undermining national security.” Benjamin Briere was similarly arrested in May 2020 and sentenced to eight years and eight months for espionage, without due process of law.