The National:

Kurdish parties in Iran on Sunday announced that they were forming a coalition called the Alliance of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan, a front opposed to the Islamic Republic as pressure from domestic protests and the US military increases.

The parties include the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), Organisation of Iranian Kurdistan Struggle and the Komala Toilers of Kurdistan. The dissident factions have long been military targets for Iran, with many members exiled to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Iraqi Kurdistan's Regional Government was quick to put out a statement after the announcement, rejecting threats made against a “neighbouring country” and reassuring that it would not allow any party to use its territory as a launch pad for an attack.

“Today, several parties released a statement in which they made threats against a neighbouring country,” the region's Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that the Iraqi Kurdistan region was a “factor of stability and calm in the region and has never been a source of threat or danger to the security of any neighbouring country.”

It reaffirmed that it would not allow any party to use the region to harass a neighbour.

The alliance on Sunday said its main objective was to “bring down” the Islamic Republic and establish Kurdish self-determination.

While no collective armed action has been seen, there have been reports of members of PJAK, the Iranian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), were recently intercepted by Tehran. Reuters reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had allegedly been informed by Turkey's intelligence agency of the attempt to cross. The group denied the interception reports. Ankara, the EU and the US designate the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

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