HYDERABAD  JAN. 22  ,:    TEHRAN – According to the spokeswoman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Iran’s recent attack on the Mossad center in Erbil was retaliation for the aggressors’ disregard for Iran’s national security rather than for Iraq.

The statements were delivered by senior Iranian ambassador Nasser Kan’ani on Monday morning during his weekly press briefing.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on January 16 that it has launched a volley of ballistic missiles toward Israeli spy headquarters in the Iraqi Kurdistan region as well as Syrian strongholds of terrorists implicated in recent terrorist strikes in Iran.

According to the IRGC, the first missile strike in the Iranian cities of Kerman and Rask was directed for commanders’ meeting spots and the primary targets of previous terrorist strikes. In a follow-up statement, it claimed that a missile strike had been launched against the Israeli regime’s Mossad spy agency’s major espionage center in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Mossad center was damaged by the strike, it added.

He said that Iran’s relations with the Iraqi government are robust and stable, and that the two nations have extensive collaboration in numerous spheres of interest. He made reference to the IRGC raid on the Mossad espionage center in Erbil as well as the degree of fulfillment of the Iran-Iraq security accord.

Although Iran and the Kurdistan region of Iraq enjoy good relations and cooperate, Kan’ani pointed out that for a long time there have been objective dangers to the security of Iran and its residents living in this region.

He emphasized that national and border security, as well as the security of Iranian residents, are Iran’s red lines and that the country’s administration and armed forces will not act indifferently toward providing security and defending the security of their citizens as they have always done.

The spokesperson for the foreign ministry emphasized that Iran has demonstrated its commitment to Iraq’s security and support for the country’s government and people, noting that Iran has been the country’s strongest defender and backer of Iraq’s security, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity.

He said that Iran is not targeting Iraq, the Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Region, or the sovereignty and territorial integrity of this nation; rather, it is taking action against the terrorist group Mossad, which is linked to the Zionist regime, with the intention of punishing those who have violated Iran’s security.

Kan’ani continued, saying that Iran has a clear stance on Iraq and has regularly issued the required cautions to the government of the friendly and neighborly nation of Iraq within the context of the two countries’ collaboration in intelligence and security.