Iraqi parliament speaker to visit Iran today

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama Nujaifi is expected to visit Tehran on Friday at the head of a high-ranking delegation to meet with Iranian officials and discuss different aspects of bilateral relations. "Today (Friday) Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama Nujaifi will arrive in Tehran at the head of a high-ranking delegation," Head of the Iraqi parliament's Information Office Mohammad Abubakr told FNA. Abubakr reiterated that the Iraqi speaker is due to meet with his Iranian counterpart Ali Larijani and other Iranian officials during his three-day stay in the country to confer on the further expansion of relations between the two neighbors and the recent incidents at the two countries' common borders. Iran and Iraq's shared borderline has recently been the scene of conflicts between the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iraq-based PJAK terrorist group. A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said yesterday that the IRGC's successful military operation against the PJAK has forced the terrorist group to accept Iran's terms and withdraw from the Iranian soil. "Last week, the grouplet helplessly held up its hands and surrendered and withdrew from the Jasosan heights, a place that they called their pride and honor," Lieutenant of the IRGC Ground Force General Abdollah Araqi said on Thursday. He added that the group accepted to retreat to areas one kilometer behind Iran's borderline with Iraq and avoid conducting military activities on Iranian soil and recruiting Iranian nationals. Araqi announced that the Iranian forces had killed 180 militias and wounded 300 others during the recent operations, and said Iranian forces are now stationed in the heights and are building bunkers. 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.