(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Erbil: Iran deployed a dozen tanks supported by artillery at the border with Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region yesterday, a Kurdish official said, adding that the move was a dangerous escalation in the crisis triggered by Iraqi Kurdistan's independence vote.
'The tanks can be seen from the Kurdish side, an official from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) security council said, adding that the move was a 'dangerous escalation. Iraq's Kurds overwhelmingly voted for independence in a referendum held one week ago, defying the central government in Baghdad as well as neighbouring Turkey and Iran, which fear Kurdish separatism within their own borders.
The deployment at the Parviz Khan border point yesterday was part of joint military drills conducted by the Iranian and the Iraqi armed forces in response to the referendum, state media in Tehran said. The exercises began last Sunday, according to Iran's Mehr news agency.
Masoud Barzani's KRG says it plans to use the referendum's result as a mandate to negotiate the peaceful secession of the Kurdish region through talks with Baghdad.
But Baghdad has rejected any talks with the KRG over independence. It demanded that the KRG relinquish control over its external border crossings with Turkey, Iran and Syria. It also demanded the KRG handover its airports to federal control.
When the KRG turned down those demands, Iraq's central government imposed a ban on international flights to and from the region's two international airports on Friday.
Iraq's defence ministry said on Friday the Iraqi authorities planned to take control of the borders of its autonomous Kurdistan region 'in coordination with Iran and Turkey.
The statement did not give details. Nor did it indicate whether Iraqi forces would move towards the border posts controlled by the KRG from the Iranian and Turkish side, or set up checkpoints in the vicinity of these posts in order to control the crossings.
Iranian state television on Saturday quoted a military spokesman as saying Iran and Iraq 'agreed on measures to establish border security and receive Iraqi forces that are to be stationed at border posts.
'We have always respected our borders with our neighbours and any (military) move will be in coordination with Baghdad and our allies, a senior Iranian official said on condition of anonymity.
Iran has vowed to stand alongside Baghdad in the fallout following the referendum. Allowing Iraq to seize border posts from Kurdish control would further cement Iran's stance to renounce dealings with the Kurdistan region in favour of the central government in Baghdad.
Backed by Ankara and Tehran, the Iraqi government has demanded that the Kurdish leadership cancel the result of the referendum or face the prospect of sanctions, international isolation and possibly a military intervention.
A small Iraqi force is also deployed on the Turkish side of the border as part of joint drills with the Turkish army.
Iran's military chief, General Mohammad Baqeri, met Turkish Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar in Tehran yesterday.
'Iran and Turkey share the same stance on the referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan and both insist on the sovereignty of Iraq, Baqeri was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA after his meeting with Akar.
'The armed forces of both countries will increase cooperation in training and war games, he was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.
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