Baghdad: Iranian Major General Qassem Sulaimani has arrived in Iraq’s Kurdistan region for talks about the escalating crisis between the Kurdish authorities and the Iraqi government following the Kurdish independence referendum, a Kurdish official said on Sunday.
Sulaimani is the commander of foreign operations for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, a military corp providing training and weapons to Iraqi paramilitary groups backing the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
Kurdish sources say Sulaimani has threatened the Kurds with an attack by the Iran-backed Shiite Popular Mobilisation militias if they did not stop the referendum in the Kurdistan region of Iraq due to be held on September 25th.
The Monitor website reported from a close source to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan that Sulaimani visited Kurdistan recently and informed the leaders of the Union who have close ties to Tehran that: “Iran has so far prevented the intervention of the popular Mobilisation militias in Kirkuk, yet Tehran will not stop them if they carry out an attack on Kurdistan.”
According to the same source, Sulaimani stated that: “So far, we have prevented the popular mobilisation militias from attacking the Kurdistan region, but we will not hamper their efforts anymore.”
