Tehran confirms reports on reopening border to Kurdistan (Roundup)

Oct 6, 2007, 19:56 GMT

Tehran - Tehran on Saturday confirmed press reports on it reopening its border to Iraq's Kurdistan.

The deputy of the National Security Council, Mohammad Jafari, told the state news agency IRNA that after two-day negotiations with a high-ranking Iraqi Kurdish delegation, Iran agreed to reopen its borders to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

ISNA news agency had earlier Saturday reported that following the visit of senior leaders from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to Iran on Thursday, the two sides settled the disputes and agreed on reopening the joint borders.

Jafari said that the Kurdish side further guaranteed 'preventing infiltration of terrorists into Iran,' a reference to the Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) from Iran which is affiliated to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Jafari did not refer to the detainment of Iranian citizen Mahmoud Farhadi by the US forces in Suleimaniya, which was believed to have been the main reason behind the border closure.

Farhadi is suspected by the US of being involved with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force and of smuggling weapons into Iraq, but Tehran said he was officially invited by the Iraqi Kurds for trade talks.

The former commander of the paramilitary revolutionary guards, General Yayha Rahim Safavi, said last week Iran had been chasing PKK and PJAK rebels from Iran inside Iraqi territory.

It had been forced to attack the Kurdish rebels' bases with artillery shells to secure the borders after Kurdish authorities ignored Iran's warnings.