Mohamadi Gulpaigani, chief of staff to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Tuesday that, by attacking the Kurds in Iraq, Shiite militia guided by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) thwarted a joint Israeli-Kurdish-American plot to create a “second Israel.”
“The United States and Israel had plotted to create a second Israel in the Kurdistan Region, and it was shameful to wave the Israeli flag there, but the instructions of the Supreme Leader and the sacrifices of general Soleimani spoiled their plots, and Kirkuk was liberated without a single drop of blood being shed,” Gulpaigani declared.
Quoting Iranian news reports, the Kurdish Rudaw news service adds that Gulpaigani also effectively accused the Kurds of stealing Iraqi oil from the fields around Kirkuk and exporting it to Israel.
Iran’s accusations were likely motivated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of “great sympathy” for the Kurds. He is one of the few world leaders to urge support from the international community for the Kurdish independence bid.
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