Iran says Iraq agreed to disarm, relocate Kurdistan militants

PHOTO CAPTION: Representational photo — A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter with a Milan missile launcher captured from Islamic state militants in Nawaran, north of Mosul, Iraq, 2016. (Reuters/Air Jalal)

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran and Iraq have reached an agreement that "armed terrorist groups" in Iraq's Kurdistan region will be disarmed and relocated next month, Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday.

“An agreement has been struck between Iran and Iraq, in which Iraq has committed to disarm armed separatists and terrorist groups present in its territory, close their bases, and relocate them to other locations before the 19th of September,” ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said at a weekly briefing.

The spokesperson did not specify where militants would be relocated. There was no immediate comment from Iraq.

Iran has long accused Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region of harbouring terrorist groups involved in attacks against the Islamic Republic, with the Revolutionary Guards repeatedly targeting their bases.

Last September, Iran's Revolutionary Guards fired missiles and drones at militant targets at Iraq's Kurdish region, killing 13 people, according to local authorities.

Iraq's foreign ministry had condemned the attacks. Iran's elite military and security force had said it would continue targeting what it called terrorists in the region.



(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)