Tehran, YJC. Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Ja'afari has lauded Iran’s support behind Baghdad in its fight against terrorism.
"Iran has provided assistance to Iraq, as have some
other countries. This is not a secret and we have to thank them for it,"
the Iraqi diplomat stated on Wednesday.
Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid, Deputy Chief of Staff of
Iran's Armed Forces, had announced on September 27 that the Islamic Republic
was offering military advice to the Iraqi army.
"Today, some of our commanders are giving
advisory assistance to Iraq and its army,” Sepah News of the IRGC quoted the senior Iranian
military official as saying.
The Iraqi official’s statements came days after a senior
general with the IRGC said that Tehran played
a pivotal role in defending Iraq's Kurdistan Region against the ISIL terrorist
group, noting that the territory could have fallen to militants without
Iran's support.
"The ISIL would have captured Iraq’s Kurdistan if
it were not for Iran. General Soleimani
stopped the ISIL with 70 men and prevented them from entering Erbil,” Commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Division Brigadier
General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh said on September 23.
Separately, the Iraqi foreign minister referred to recent
airstrikes by Western countries against the ISIL, stressing that
any foreign assistance to Iraq should respect the country’s sovereignty.
"We cannot accept that Iraq is becoming a land of
conflict but we have to solve this problem in a way that preserves Iraqi
sovereignty," the Iraqi FM maintained.