Cooperation Made by Iranian Government to Protect Their Borders Territories of nation always have borders and the borders can become common borders with the neighboring countries. Thus, it is normal between countries that share the borders to maintain cooperation, especially in term of security. Moreover, there can always be issues on the borders, and security issues cannot be taken lightly because these can threaten welfare of the countries with the common borders. That is why agreements can be made between these countries to maintain joint efforts to strengthen security. It was what the Iranian’s and Iraq’s government do recently. Both of these two countries signed pledges to work together in strengthening the security on common borders between two nations. Specifically, it is based on issue faced by Iranian government because of the armed Kurdish dissidents in territory of Iran.

Some moments ago, armed group based on Kurdish region posed security threats to official region of Iran. The problem occurred last year when the Revolutionary Guards of Iran’s government decided to launch attack on the Kurdish group. They launched missiles supported by drone attacks to fight against Iranian Kurdish group. The problem emerged as the Kurdish group protested when the Kurdish woman was found death when she was held as custody in Iran. The protests led to some problems so Iran’s governments decided to launch official attacks on the group. However, the base of the Kurdish group was in the northern area of Iraq and it was near the common border between Iraq and Iran. Thus, it led to serious issues involving these two countries. That is why Iranian government decided to send officials as delegation to Iraq to hold discussion regarding the issues on the common border between these countries. As the results, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkani signed and pledged deals with representative of Iraq. He was Qasim al-Araji who served as Security Advisor of Iraq’s National Security. There was also Iraqi Prime Minister during the official meeting.

Based on the agreement between two countries, Iraq’s government showed its commitment in dealing with the issues on the common border. The government said that they will not give any permission to any armed groups in using its official territory to launch attacks on the Iran’s region. The agreement would be necessary to prevent the Kurdish armed group to settle their base in the Iraq’s northern area. Thus, the armed groups would not be able to launch attacks that may harm security of Iran’s region on the border. Based on what Iran’s government said, the problems were not only about protests that lead to security issues. They also accused that the Kurdish military group were working together with Israel. As what people have known, Israel is the archenemy of Iran and there were securities issues and threats during years. In addition, Iran also said that there was also Israeli spy agency in the armed forces in Iraqi Kurdish region. Thus, both countries needed to maintain relationship to protect the common borders and strengthen the securities so there will not be any security issues in the future. By having official agreement, these would also prevent unnecessary conflicts between two countries because of the Kurdish armed groups settled on the area of Iraq.

Issues regarding the borders did not only happen in this time. In fact, some years ago, Iran and United Arab Emirates made official agreement to strengthen their borders. Joint efforts were made between Iran and UAE to boost bilateral cooperation, especially in strengthening the maritime borders. The joint cooperation was triggered by smuggling attempts on the water area between two countries. Thus, they thought that it was necessary to hold joint naval exercises to protect the water area against the smugglings and strengthening border managements between them. The agreements were made on July 30, 2019. Representative of UAE came to Teheran to discuss the joint cooperation. The maritime security cooperation was focused on the area of Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman.

In May 2019, four oil tankers of UAE were attacked. Thus, UAE representatives were sent to the UN Security Council to discuss the attack. However, UN member states decided to make no actions regarding the issues reported by the UAE. They thought that there was no clear evidence to take action and there was also no enough evidence to blame any countries behind the attacks. UAE’s foreign minister also admitted that they had no proofs regarding the attacks. Thus, they did not pursue any further to get supports from UN. As the results, UAE tried to find support from Iranian government and this resulted in the joint cooperation between them though naval military exercises on their water area. Through the cooperation, it was expected that there would be any threats, attacks, and further securities issues in their maritime area. Iranian government also agreed to make joint cooperation in strengthening cooperation between two countries in the maritime borders.