Iraq announced that it had developed a "strategy" to secure its borders with both Iran and Turkey, in a decision that came in the wake of repeated bombardment by its neighbors Iran and Turkey, which targeted militants of the Kurdish opposition in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
The announcement came in a statement issued by the Iraqi government on Wednesday after a meeting of the Ministerial Council for National Security, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
The statement said that the government decided to "devise a plan to redeploy the Iraqi border forces to hold the zero line along the borders with Iran and Turkey."
The statement indicated that this plan will be developed "in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq and the Peshmerga Ministry," noting that the Peshmerga Chief of Staff participated in the meeting.
A delegation from the Peshmerga met on Tuesday with representatives of the Ministries of Interior and Defense.
The two sides agreed on "a strategy aimed at enhancing border security," according to a statement issued by the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
"The Kurdistan Regional Government will send reinforcements from the Peshmerga to the border," said Luck Ghafouri, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government.
In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that his country hopes "not to use Iraqi lands to threaten Iran's security."
Turkish Iranian strikes
On Tuesday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard carried out missile strikes and booby-trapped drone attacks on sites belonging to the Iranian Kurdish opposition stationed in Iraqi Kurdistan, the autonomous region in northern Iraq.
In turn, Turkey launched last Sunday a military operation against sites of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Kurdish People's Protection Units in northern Iraq and Syria.
According to observers, it appears that the Iraqi declaration is directed specifically at Iran, which confirmed earlier Wednesday its intention to continue confronting the "threat" emanating from the Iraqi region.
The border areas in Iraqi Kurdistan are under the control of the Peshmerga, which are special military forces in the Kurdistan region, but they are administratively affiliated to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.