Iranian FM blasts Germany for sheltering PJAK terrorists

Iranian top diplomat Ali Akbar Salehi in a meeting with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle rapped Berlin's hypocrisy in dealing with terrorist groups, and called on the German officials to stop sheltering the PJAK terrorists. "The western countries and Germany should not allow the terrorist PJAK group to run activity," Salehi said during the meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. He also called on the western states to name PJAK in their lists of foreign terrorist groups due to the group's terrorist attacks against the Iranian and Iraqi nationals. PJAK, a militant Kurdish nationalist group with bases in the mountainous regions of Northern Iraq, has been carrying out numerous attacks in Western Iran, Southern Turkey and the Northeastern parts of Syria where Kurdish populations live. The separatist group has been fighting to establish an autonomous state, or possibly a new world country, in the area after separating Kurdish regions from Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Iranian intelligence and security officials have repeatedly complained that Washington provides military support and logistical aids for such anti-Iran terrorist groups. In July, the IRGC arrested several teams of PJAK, who intended to infiltrate Iran to stage terrorist operations in the country. In response, Iran deployed about 5,000 military forces in the Northwestern parts of the country along its joint border with the Iraqi Kurdistan region. During the operations, the IRGC forces killed, injured and arrested tens of terrorists and destroyed their headquarters in the bordering areas of Alvatan near Sardasht city in Northwestern Iran. But, upon a request by Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the group was given a one-month grace period during the Muslims' holy fasting month of Ramadan to retreat from the Northwestern borders of the Islamic Republic and stop its terrorist acts in these regions. "But the PJAK terrorist group paid no heed to the KRG's appeals and mediation and martyred two local Kurdish forces… and this proved to the KRG that the terrorists had ignored its requests," IRGC Colonel Hamid Ahmadi said at the time. The IRGC resumed military operations against the Iraq-based PJAK terrorist group after its one-month deadline to the terrorist group ended. Senior Iranian political and military officials have always underlined that the IRGC will continue operations against the terrorist group in a bid to defend Iran's territorial integrity. PJAK reportedly called for a ceasefire with Iran after some of their members were killed and others injured in the IRGC's latest round of operations against the terrorist group. Earlier this month, the IRGC announced that it had arrested two senior commanders of the terrorist PJAK group in an operation in the Northwestern parts of the country. The number two man and second leader of the PJAK terrorist group, Majid Kavian, had also been killed in an earlier IRGC operation in Northwestern Iran. The deputy commander of the Iraq-based PJAK terrorist group, Majid Kavian, alias Semko Sarholdan, was killed in an IRGC operation in Northwestern Iran earlier this month. The website of the terrorist group confirmed his death in a statement. After the group sustained a heavy toll and injuries during the new round of IRGC operations, the ringleader of PJAK, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, told the BBC Persian channel that the group will continue fighting with Iranian forces if the IRGC refuses to accept the ceasefire. In reply, the IRGC said it would not accept a ceasefire with the PJAK before the Iraq-based terrorist group leaves Iranian borders. But, after repeated demands by the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government officials, the IRGC Ground Force called on the Iraqi Kurdistan's regional government to specify the terms and contents of the ceasefire demand presented by the Iraq-based PJAK terrorist group. The IRGC Ground Force also underlined the necessity for the withdrawal of all outlaws, anti-revolutionary forces and elements of the PJAK terrorist group from the bordering areas of Iran. In a new event, Commander of Iran's Border Guard Units General Hossein Zolfaqari said on Monday that PJAK's terrorist operations have been brought to a halt after the powerful operations of Iran's military and law enforcement troops. "PJAK's moves have been harnessed through the cooperation between the IRGC (Islamic Revolution Guard Corps) and border guards units of the law enforcement police," Zolfaqari told reporters. Elaborating on the cause of the PJAK retreat, he said that the terrorist group has sustained heavy casualties and a number of PJAK ringleaders have been killed by the IRGC forces in Baneh region.