Saeed Khatibzadeh, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry said that it was unacceptable that one of our neighbor’s that have deep relations with us… becomes an area for creating threats to the Islamic republic.
He stated that Iran would not accept that a centre near its borders becomes a center for sabotage and conspiracy, as well as sending terrorist groups to Iran at his weekly press conference held in Tehran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (the ideological arm of the armed force) claimed Sunday that they had attacked a “strategic centre” belonging to Israel in northern Iraqi city Erbil with “powerful precision missiles”.
However, Kurdish authorities insist that the Jewish state does not have any sites near Erbil, which is the capital of their autonomous region, in Iraq’s northern.
Authorities claimed that Erbil was hit by 12 ballistic missiles, some of which were U.S. facilities. The attack, which left two civilians lightly injured, occurred in pre-dawn crossing-border.
CBS News was informed by a U.S. State Department official that there were no American casualties and that the majority of missiles fired at a residential compound in Iraqi Kurdish citizens.
Baghdad summoned Iraj Masjidi (Iran’s ambassador) to protest the strikes. The foreign ministry of Iraq condemned the strike as a “flagrant violation” of (Iraqi] sovereignty.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken met with Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, to discuss the attack. Ned Price, spokesperson for the State Department, stated that Blinken had expressed solidarity with the Iraqi people and condemned the Iranian missile attack as a violation Iraq’s sovereignty.
Price stated that the Secretary had conveyed the U.S.’s commitment to working with the Iraqi government, and other regional governments to hold Iran responsible.
Khatibzadeh stated that his country had warned the federal government of Iraq “several” times not to allow “Iraq’s borders to Iran to become unsecure.”
He said that Iran expects the central government to end the situation in Iraq and to not allow its borders be misused.
Sunday’s attack was almost a week after two Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers were killed in Syria by a strike blamed on Israel, a key U.S. allies.
The U.S. has a reduced presence in Iraq, which includes the Kurdistan region. They led a coalition against ISIS.
Washington blamed the series drone and rocket attacks on its military interests and diplomatic interests in Iraqi diplomats on pro-Iran groups that demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops. However, cross-border missile fire is rare.
