Iraq Denies Cooperation With Iran on Building Missile Base

Iraqi border guards denied media reports about initiating the Iraqi Kurdistan region's military bases, the press service of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said Thursday.

ERBIL (Iraq) (Sputnik) — Iraqi border guards denied media reports about initiating the construction of military bases with Iran in Kurdistan region of Iraq, the press service of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said Thursday.

"All the reports claiming the Iranian military presence in Iraq are not true. We emphasize that no Iranian troops are present in Iraqi Kurdistan, especially in the areas which we control. The public in Kurdistan should not believe this kind of rumors," the press service quoted a representative of the third border guard brigade, which belongs to the Iraqi Ministry of Internal Affairs, as saying.

Last week, Arabic and Turkish media reported that Tehran had launched construction of the largest missile base in the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range in Iraqi Kurdistan, which reportedly aims to protect the religious borders of Iran.

On Tuesday, US Department of State spokesperson John Kirby said that the US authorities have no information on alleged plans by the Iranian government to build a missile base in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

On May 24, Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Yusuf Mohammed Sadiq said that there Iranian advisers in the southern regions of Kurdistan who are helping in the fight against the Daesh, the terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and a range of other states, but that this is a single example of the presence of Iranian military in the region.

Iraqi Kurdistan is an autonomous territory in northern Iraq, whose status is enshrined in the Iraqi Constitution.