IRGC DENIES PLANNING OF JOINT OPERATION WITH TURKEY AGAINST PKK

Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guard commanders in Tehran, Iran, September 18, 2016. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

On August 22, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ground force headquarters “Hamzah Sayed al-Shuhda’a” released an official statement denying that the IRGC is planning any joint operation with Turkey against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party also known as the (PKK).

“We have not planned for any operations across the borders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the IRGC said in a statement.

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed on August 21 that Turkey and Iran are planning to launch a joint military operation against the PKK in the near future.

Furthermore, Erdogan added that he discussed the PKK threat with the chief of the staff of Iran’s armed forces, General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri last week.

“Although the Islamic Republic of Iran has no plan to take widespread operational actions outside its borders, if any terrorist group aims to take the slightest measure to create insecurity on our borders, they will be faced with our intensive and fierce response, and their remnants will be targeted wherever they are,” the IRGC added.

The PKK increased operations against the Turkish Army in the last few years mainly due to the war in Syria. On August 17, the Turkish authorities seized western made weapons that was supplied to the PKK by the US-backed forces in Syria.

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