OpsLens Video
Traditional Middle East rivals Iran and Turkey have found themselves united of late by their mutual opposition to Kurdish independence in Iraq and common interest in ending the six-year war in Syria, among other leading issues in the region.
Turkey had already begun conducting military exercises near its border with Iraq’s majority-Kurd north and conducted airstrikes targeting the region last month. Iran also closed its border with Iraq’s Kurdish region on ahead of the vote for independence and halted all flights there.
While the intensity of Iran’s domestic Kurdish insurgency has never reached the level of Turkey’s, Iran also supports majority-Shiite Muslim Iraqi militias who will likely be used to escalate military engagement against the Kurdish people.
