Iranian President Hassan Rouhani underlined that the Iraqi people will not allow foreigners to exercise their disintegration plots against their homeland.
"Iraq is a united country and we tell those who are on the other side of the world and have bad dreams for Iraq's future that the Iraqi nation has plans for its stability and integrity as a great nation and will not allow other countries to create difference and disintegrate Iraq," Rouhani said in a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Fouad Massoum in Tehran on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, he stressed good and intimate relations with Iraq in all political, economic and cultural fields, and said he had discussed regional issues, including the crisis in Yemen and Syria, with his Iraqi counterpart.
On the dire humanitarian conditions in Yemen, Rouhani called for immediate ceasefire and facilitated aid delivery to the Yemeni people.
In March 2015, the US Congress introduced legislation that would allocate military articles directly to the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Sunni tribesmen, a prelude to disintegrate Iraq.
Last Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said his government strongly opposed the bill, saying the bill would sow division.
In a press release, al-Abadi said that the Iraqi government strongly opposed the bill.
"The bill proposed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is opposed (by the Iraqi government), as it leads to further divisions in the region," al-Abadi said.
"We call on the US Congress not to go through with the bill to preserve strategic relations between the two countries (the United States and Iraq) in fighting the Islamic State (of Iraq and the Levant) terrorist organization and reinforcing cooperation between them," he added.
The Iraqi Prime Minister noted that the countries working alongside Baghdad in combating the ISIL have respected Iraq’s sovereignty, and stressed that nobody will receive weapons without the consent of the central government.
"There is no double dealing with the outside parties… We stress that arming any group will not occur unless via the Iraqi government, in accordance with its military plans," al-Abadi added.
Early in May, Iraq's Parliament issued a statement rejecting the bill, and reiterated its support to a unified Iraq.
Yet, senior parliamentary officials in Baghdad disclosed two days later on April 4 that Germany has sent 70 tons of weapons to the Iraqi Kurds in the city of Erbil without any coordination with the country's central government in Baghdad, a move seen as part of the western states' plan for disintegrating Iraq through undermining Baghdad's authority.
"Germany has sent 70 tons of weapons to Iraq's Kurdistan region without prior information of the Iraqi government," Al-Sumeriya news website quoted Iraqi MP Haytham al-Jabouri as saying.
The move by the German government takes place at a time when the Iraqi Parliament voiced strong opposition to a bill proposed by the US Congress that allows the Kurdish forces and the Sunni tribesmen to be armed directly bypassing Iraq's central government.
Al-Jabouri noted that the arms cargo arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan region on Monday, and said, "The German government's move has been made in violation of the Iraqi parliament's rejection of any foreign interference in the country's internal affairs or interaction with Iraqi political groups without prior coordination with the Federal government."
Also the Iraqi prime minister's office in a statement issued on Tuesday lashed out at the recent statements made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on independence of the Kurdish population of Iraq.
Al-Abadi's office voiced astonishment at Orban's persuasive statements about independence of the Iraqi Kurdistan region, describing the remarks as unacceptable meddling in Iraq's internal affairs.
"We demand all countries to respect Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity and avoid interfering in Iraq's internal affairs; we once again lay emphasis on integration of Iraq," the statement added.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday his government supports nations striving for independence, including the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which he said can play a stable role in the Middle East.
“The Kurdistan region has all the qualities and basic criteria to declare independence and can become an effective world country," Orbán said on Monday in a joint press conference with the Kurdistan Region's President Massoud Barzani.
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