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Iran has deployed dozens of battle tanks to the border with Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Reuters reported on Monday citing an official from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) security council.
Reuters’ source argued that the move further escalaed the Iraqi crisis erupted after the Kurdistan Region independence vote on September 25.
“The tanks can be seen from the Kurdish side,” the official told Reuters, arguing that this is a “dangerous escalation.”
The deployment in the border area was a part of joint military exercises conducted by Iranian and Iraqi forces ahead of the expected effort of the Iraqi government to establish control over the Iraqi Kurdistan borders with Turkey and Iran.
Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani says that the independence vote in September was the first step to negotiate a peaceful secession from Iraq. However, the Iraqi Fedral Government describes it as an unacceptable move violating the Iraqi constitution.
