Iran by no means accepts that one of its neighbors, who has deep relations and interaction with it, will be the center of threat to Iran, Khatibzadeh told reporters on Monday, referring to the Sunday missile attack by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) against the Israeli centers in Iraqi Kurdistan region.
He added that the Zionist regime has repeatedly caused insecurity from inside Iraq, and has formed several counter-revolutionary and terrorist groups in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, and noted that Iran would not allow activity of centers of sabotage and sending terrorist groups near its borders.
Khatibzadeh also called the Iraqi central government to end such situations and not to allow the Iraqi borders to be abused.
He warned the Israeli regime that Iran enjoys intelligence superiority over all places they have a presence.
His comments came after the IRGC said it has carried out a retaliatory missile strike on the "strategic center of Zionist conspiracy and evil" in the Northern Iraqi Kurdistan city of Erbil early Sunday.
"Following the recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime and the previous announcement that the crimes and evils of this infamous regime will not go unanswered, the strategic center for conspiracy and evil of the Zionists was targeted by powerful and pinpoint missiles of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps," it said.
In a statement issued earlier on Sunday, the IRGC indicated that the operation was in response to an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital of Damascus last Monday, in which two IRGC officers were killed. The IRGC identified the two slain officers as colonels Ehsan Karbalaipour and Morteza Saeidnejad, warning that Israel would "pay for this crime."
On Thursday, Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations wrote to the UN secretary general and the Security Council, saying Tehran "reserves its inherent right to self-defense, under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, to respond to such criminal act whenever it deems appropriate".
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