Iranian General Reportedly Played Key Role In Swift Takeover Of Iraq’s Kirkuk

RFL/RE – A top Iranian military commander traveled to northern Iraq to urge Kurdish leaders to withdraw from Kirkuk in a move that Kurdish officials said played an important role in enabling Iraq’s government to swiftly retake control of the city from Kurds this week.

Kurdish lawmakers said Major-General Qasem Soleimani, commander of foreign operations for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, met leaders from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main Kurdish political parties in Iraq and an ally of Tehran, in the city of Sulaimania the day before Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered his forces to advance on Kirkuk.

Reuters reported that Soleimani told the Kurdish leaders that their Peshmerga forces would not be able to beat Abadi’s troops, which had backing from the West and regional powers Iran and Turkey. He also warned them to withdraw from Kirkuk or risk losing Tehran’s support, Reuters said.

The Iranian general reminded the lawmakers about late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s harsh putdown of a Kurdish rebellion in 1991, Reuters quoted the Kurdish political leaders as saying.

“Soleimani’s visit…was to give a last-minute chance for the decision makers not to commit a fatal mistake,” Reuters quoted one PUK lawmaker as saying.