Media in the U.S.: The Foreign Minister of Iran called the leader of the Kurdish autonomous region in Iraq, stating "will prevent third parties from undermining regional stability"

CNN.com reported on March 4: According to a briefing by the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the Iranian Foreign Minister pledged "cooperation" during a phone call on Wednesday.

The report said that the day before the pledge of cooperation, CNN reported that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) planned to incite rebellion in Iran by arming Iranian Kurds and crossing them from the Kurdish region of Iraq into Iran.

But during the call, Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi agreed to work together to "prevent any third parties from exploiting the situation to destabilize the region." (During their call, Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi agreed to work toward "preventing any third parties from exploiting the situation to destabilize the region.")

A phone record from Barzani's office also stated that the region "would not become part of the conflict."

The report said that on the same day, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that Araghchi had spoken with the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Bafel Talabani, and emphasized security cooperation in the face of "terrorist activities" along the Iran-Iraq border.

This series of calls also included a call between the Iraqi Prime Minister Sudani and Araghchi. According to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sudani told the Iranian Foreign Minister that Iraq would not allow attacks against Iran from its territory.

The report said that Meghan Bodette, research director at the Kurdish Peace Institute, told CNN that Iraqi Kurdish leaders did not want to risk provoking Iran. "The Kurdish region of Iraq will first focus on protecting its own interests, even if its leaders and people express sympathy for the struggle of Kurdish people in Iran," she said.

Although the Iraqi Kurds had previously supported Kurdish armed groups in Syria, Bodette said that supporting Kurdish people in Iran was much more risky.

"Iran sees this war as a matter of life or death," Bodette said, "if there is an intention to support Kurdish people in Iran, then Iran has the ability and willingness to threaten civilians in the Kurdish region of Iraq, destroy its infrastructure, and undermine its economy. However, when the Kurdish region of Iraq supported Kurdish people in Syria in January, such a threat did not exist."

The original title of the report was "Iraqi Kurdish leader and Iranian foreign minister speak after reports of CIA arming Iranian Kurds" (After reports of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arming Iranian Kurds, the Iraqi Kurdish leader spoke with the Iranian Foreign Minister).

Original: toutiao.com/article/1858775647424585/

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