Talk of Iraq, Iran, and Turkey responded to Kurdistan’s secession vote with military action seems to be growing more serious. Kurdish officials now say that Iran has deployed a dozen tanks and accompanying artillery to their border with Iraqi Kurdistan.
Kurdish officials say the tanks can be seen from their side of the border, dubbing the deployment a “dangerous escalation.” The Iranian government presented it as part of a joint military drill with Iraq.
92% of Kurdish voters were in favor of seceding from Iraq, and Kurdish officials say there is no going back after the vote. The effort is opposed by the rest of the region, however, and Iran and Turkey, who both have Kurdish minorities of their own, are particularly averse to a precedent for a Kurdish right to self determination.
The Kurdish Peshmerga is a substantial militia faction, bolstered by being armed by the US for the ISIS war. Still, it’s not clear how capable they would be in defending Iraqi Kurdistan if it comes to an invasion by all their neighbors.
If the Kurds aren’t planning on any incursions into Iran, there shouldn’t be a problem, though- right? Iran has nothing to gain by starting a shooting war with anyone. Like the man says, “Don’t start nothin’, ain’t gone be nothin’.”
You are forgetting that the iraqi governments closest ally is iran, and iran now has both the reason and the legitimacy to enforce iraqs territorial integrity.
it would not be an incursion but a joint action with the request of the Baghdad government.
iran has every reason to fully support the baghdad government even if it had no kurds in iran.
so the kurds have plenty to worry about if they decided to contest the central government with force iran will roll in and crush them
The Iranians ought to know that the ideal of Kurdistan will never die.
Too bad the Kurds don’t have it written in some old scroll that G-d gave them title to an independent Kurdistan. Then they could ethnically cleanse the area of Arabs and start thinking about Greater Kurdistan. The West would be arming and bankrolling them and the Israelis would be providing air cover. Oh, right, they already are.