SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Region’s minister of interior Rebar Ahmed said on Tuesday Iran is welcome to visit the area it struck with missiles on Sunday, adding that the Region “has nothing to hide”.
In the early hours of Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched 12 missiles toward Erbil city.
Iranian media reported that the missiles struck a “strategic center” of Israel in Erbil.
Authorities in the Kurdistan Region denied claims of Israeli centers in the Region, calling the reports “baseless”.
“Any repetition of attacks by Israel will be met with a harsh, decisive and destructive response,” it said in a statement reported by state media, according to Reuters.
An Israeli air strike in Syria on Monday killed two members of IRGC, Iranian state media said last week. The Revolutionary Guards vowed to retaliate, it said.
Earlier on Tuesday, a committee from Iraq’s Council of Representatives visited the area targeted by the missiles.
Deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament Hakim Zamli, who led the committee, said their visit would have results.
The security of Iraq “cannot be divided”, Zamli said in a joint press conference with the Region’s interior minister.
Ahmed, for his part, said the committee’s visit to the area was a “big support” for the Region.
He added that the Kurdistan Region’s door “is open to any committee” and that the Region “has nothing to hide”.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had officially asked Iran to visit and investigate the area it had targeted.
“Let Iran come too,” he said, reiterating that “it is a civilian place and the rumors that are made are not true”.
On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi also visited area.
In a statement, Kadhimi’s office said the prime minister had ordered the formation of a committee including the national security advisor and security commanders to prepare a report about the attack and to gather “evidence and facts”.
“We reiterate that Baghdad is ready here as how Erbil is ready in Baghdad,” Kadhimi said, stressing the need to respect Iraq’s sovereignty.
“This issue has been formally addressed through diplomatic means,” he added.
“It is necessary to rely on evidence, not only doubts,” he continued. “There should be security coordination between the countries to face joint challenges.”
Spokesman of Iran’s foreign ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday that Tehran had warned Iraqi and Kurdish authorities many times that its territory should not be used by third parties to conduct attacks against the country.
“The central government of Iraq has the responsibility to ensure that its territory is not used as a base for attacks by third parties against Iran,” Khatibzadeh said in a press conference.
“Several times in the past, Iraq’s territory was used against Iran by third parties including terrorist groups such as Kurdish militants, the United States and the Zionist entity,” he added, referring to Israel.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said the attack only targeted civilian residential areas, not sites belonging to foreign countries, and called on the international community to carry out an investigation.
“The cowardly attack on Erbil … allegedly under the pretext of hitting an Israeli base near the US Consulate in Erbil, targeted civilian locations and its justification is only to hide the disgracefulness of such offense,” presidency of the KRG Council of Ministers said in a statement.
“We reiterate that the propaganda of the perpetrators of this attack is far from true.
“Iran has repeated these attacks many times, and the silence of the international community in the face of these cowardly attacks will pave the way for their continuation,” it added.
“We call on the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, the Arab League, the federal government, the Iraqi parliament, and the Iranian government to urgently investigate these baseless attacks, visit targeted locations, reveal the facts to the public, and take a true and strong stance on these attacks.”
