Iraq’s representative to the United Nations called on the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to support his country’s sovereignty and condemn Iran’s attacks on Iraq.

Mohammed Bahr Aluloom told the Security Council that the recent Iranian attacks on the Kurdistan region in Iraq has resulted in Iraqis deaths and terrorized civilians.

“Iraq summoned Iran’s ambassador on Thursday and handed over a note of protest over the shelling that killed at least 13 people last week,” Aluloom told the UNSC.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran’s armed forces, announced last week that Iran launched more than 70 ballistic missiles and drone attacks on the Erbil Governorate in the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq.

According to a statement issued from the Pentagon’s Central Command, the U.S. military stationed in Erbil shot down one of the Iranian drones.

“U.S. Central Command condemns the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ unprovoked attack in Iraq’s Erbil Governorate this morning,” the Pentagon said. “Such indiscriminate attacks threaten innocent civilians and risk the Region’s hard-fought stability.”

U.N. Special Representative in Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, of the Netherlands, condemned the Islamic Republic’s attacks on Iraq and called on Iraq’s neighbors to respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Hennis-Plasschaert’s remarks were made after Iran renewed bombing sites in Iraqi Kurdistan on Tuesday.

After the recent wave of protests in Iran, triggered by the brutal killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman, in the custody of the Iranian “morality police,” Tehran accused Kurdish groups in Iraq of fueling the protests. They have also accused the U.S. and Israel of designing “these riots and insecurities.” 

The Iranian government claims that the recent military offensive in the Kurdish region in Iraq aimed to disarm “separatist Kurdish groups.”

The Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran, which is banned from operating in Iran – and is one of the opposition groups that has been targeted in the attacks – insists it is not seeking a separate Kurdish state and is fighting for “a free and democratic” Iran.

Bahaa Khaleel, an Iraqi writer and analyst, said the recent statement by the Iraqi representative to the U.N. is a rare solid gesture from the Iraqi government regarding Iran’s violations.

“Iraq doesn’t have the capabilities to stop Iran’s aggression, let alone the close ties between some powerful Iraqi officials and the Iranian regime,” Khaleel told ALL ARAB NEWS.

During a visit to Erbil on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi condemned the recent attacks on the Kurdistan region, emphasizing the necessity of respecting Iraq and the region’s sovereignty, while still maintaining good-neighborly relations.

Khaleel told ALL ARAB NEWS that the Iraqi military doesn’t have the air defense system which is key for countering the continued Iranian or Turkish attacks on the Iraqi territories, making it impossible to stop the Iranian aggression in Iraq without U.S. military and political support.

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