IRBIL, Iraq ― Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency is reporting that the country’s armed forces plan to hold a joint military drill with the Iraqi army near Kurdish territory.
The Saturday report 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 Kurdistan border.
Jazayeri said the decision to have some Iraqi military units participate came during a meeting Saturday of the chiefs of Iranian armed forces.
Iran closed its borders and stopped flights to Iraqi Kurdistan airports following a Kurdish referendum of independence from Iraq on Monday.
Ahead of the vote, Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard launched a military exercise in the same region.
