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Kurdish protesters attack Iran’s embassy in Paris


Kurdish Peshmerga forces fire a mortar towards ISIS positions near Mosul in 2016. These forces are now turning against Iran. (Reuters)

Pro-Kurdish protesters attacked Iran’s embassy in Paris on Friday. Iran says that 15 Kurdish activists burned the Iranian flag in front of the embassy. They threw stones, fire extinguishers, and computers at the embassy gate in an attempt to enter the premises, but were unable to do so.

It is thought that the protests were triggered by last week’s major escalation by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) when it launched a missile attack on anti-Iran opposition groups in Kurdistan in northern Iraq. The IRGC used seven missiles in the attack, killing 11 people and wounding dozens more.

The IRGC attack occurred at the same time there had been several days of violent anti-Iran protests in Basra in southern Iraq. However, the IRGC attack apparently took several weeks to prepare, and so the two events are not directly connected.

Iran confirmed that its embassy had been attacked, but Iran’s foreign ministry blamed France’s police for not acting quickly enough to stop the attack: “It is necessary for France to take serious and necessary measures and preparations to protect all Iranian diplomatic missions in that country.”

Iran is complaining that some French police refused to protect the embassy and were not present at the time of the attack despite the fact that it was aware of the assault.

Iran has to walk a fine line in not going too far to criticize France. Iran has been demanding help from France and other European countries in mitigating the damage to Iran’s economy of President Trump’s action in pulling out of the nuclear deal and re-imposing sanctions. Press TV (Iran) and AP and Reuters

Kurds’ anti-Iran Komala party denies involvement with Paris attack

Iran accused the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan of being behind the attack on Iran’s embassy in Paris. The statement issued by the Komala party alluded to Iran’s missile attack on Kurdistan last weekend:

Komala rejects the accusations of being behind the attack on Iran’s embassy in Paris.

[Our members in France took part] in a peaceful gathering outside the Iranian embassy to protest Iran’s despicable actions against the Kurdish nation [on September 8].

Unfortunately, some individuals from the gathering started to violate the embassy, and even if we understand people’s anger, we completely condemn this type of uncivilized acts.

The Komala party has an armed wing known as the Peshmerga. The Peshmerga became internationally cheered in 2014-16 because it provided many of the militias fighting ISIS after the latter overran Mosul.

Once ISIS was defeated, last year the Peshmerga resumed, for the first time in 25 years, being stationed just a few miles from Iran’s border, to threaten terror attacks on Iranian soil.

Komala is a Marxist-Leninist pro-Communist party that was originally formed to oppose the government of the Shah of Iran, and in 1983 joined other Communist groups to form the Communist Party of Iran.

Over the years, there have been frequent clashes between the Komala and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), which was one of the targets of last week’s missile attack by Iran. Trend News (Azerbaijan) and Kurdistan 24 and Rudaw (Kurdistan, 30-Apr-2017) and Middle East Research and Information Project

Related Articles:

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, France, Paris, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, Basra, Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, Peshmerga, Mosul, Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, PDKI
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