TEHRAN, May 12 (UPI) -- Iraq should take measures to ensure its border with Iran is secured from Kurdish separatists and other terrorist groups in the region, Iranian officials said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told reporters at his weekly press conference that Tehran was concerned about militant activity along its northern border with Iraq, Press TV reports.
"Iran respects Iraq's national sovereignty and expects Iraqi officials to pay special attention to their common border with Iran and to monitor the activities of terrorist groups stationed there," he said.
His comments came as Iranian forces reportedly clashed with members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and its affiliate Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, known by its Kurdish acronym PJAK.
Jabbar Yawer, a spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq, said PJAK militants struck Iranian police stations in a cross-border raid last week, killing several Iranian officers.
Iraqi officials reported as recently as Monday that the Iranian military had shelled Kurdish areas of northern Iraq in operations targeting members of both militant groups.
Qashqavi said that while the Iranian border with Iraq was considered unsafe during the Saddam Hussein regime, border-security efforts should be the focus of the new government.
"It is, however, a reasonable expectation to see border security restored on both sides as a result of Saddam's ouster," he said.
