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Iran interior minister says advisers sent to Iraqi Kurdistan

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has admitted that Iran sent advisers to Iraqi Kurdistan at the request of Kurdish officials.
Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli (L) speaks during a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in Islamabad on May 6, 2014. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will travel to Iran on May 12 in a visit seen as an attempt to improve relations frayed by the kidnapping of Iranian border guards. AFP PHOTO/Aamir QURESHI        (Photo credit should read AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images)
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After Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denied that Iran had sent troops into Iraq, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said that advisers had been sent into Iraqi Kurdistan at the request of the Kurdistan Regional Government. At the meeting with provincial officials in Qom, Fazli also related that President Hassan Rouhani had drawn a red line at the fall of Shiite holy cities Karbala and Najaf.

On Aug. 25, Fazli said that when the Islamic State group (IS) "attacked Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish officials requested help from Iran. And the Islamic Republic, in addition to providing advisers, organized their forces."

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