Iranian, Iraqi government forces to hold joint border drills

Iranian and Iraqi central government forces are to hold joint military exercises near their borders, Iran’s state television reported on Saturday, as part of Tehran’s effort to support Baghdad after the Kurdish independence referendum on Monday.

State television quoted a military spokesman as saying the decision to hold the war games was taken at a meeting on Saturday of Iranian military commanders which also “agreed on measures to establish border security and receive Iraqi forces that are to be stationed at border posts”.

The Saturday report by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency quotes Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, spokesman for Iran’s joint armed forces staff, as saying the maneuver will be held in the coming days in northwest Iran near the Iraqi Kurdish region border.

Iran closed its borders and stopped flights to Iraqi Kurdistan airports following the Kurdish referendum .

Ahead of the vote, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched a military exercise in the same region. 

Baghdad to take border control 
Meanwhile, Iraq’s military is preparing to take control of the international borders of the northern Kurdish region.

The preparations are part of the central government’s stepped-up efforts to isolate the Kurds following their vote on independence earlier this week.

They come a day after Iraq instituted a flight ban that halted all international flights from servicing the territory’s airports.

Iraqi troops now in Turkey and Iran were expected to start enforcing control over the border crossings out of the Kurdish region on Saturday morning.

source: Alarabiya