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Elements of the Popular Mobilization Forces
An American website said that Iran and its armed militias, especially the “Popular Mobilization”, are controlling border crossings in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, forming a line of illegal smuggling of various goods, depriving the country of customs duties.
The American Al-Monitor reported: “Kurdistan has three border crossings with Iran: Hajj Omran in the Erbil governorate, Parvezkhan in the Garmian administration area and Beshmakh in the Sulaymaniyah governorate”, revealing that “there is almost complete control over the Parvikhan junction in the extreme southeast of the region. “.
It reported the existence of fraud networks and smuggling of huge goods worth “hundreds of millions of dinars” (the national currency of the region), while the Kurdistan Ministry of Finance only announced the discovery of a large smuggling network at a border crossing with Iran, without specifying the crossing.
The militia controls the area
In turn, a security officer in the area stressed, in an interview with Al-Monitor, that “there are many factions and militias in control, since the Popular Mobilization Forces control all sections of that area.”
And the security officer revealed that “one of the tactics employed by Iran is the arrival of visitors to the sacred areas of Najaf and Karbala.”
Export value is high
The site noted that the border is the place where the largest amount of merchandise passes to Iraq from Iran, which exported about 1.34 tons of merchandise worth $ 562 million in the first four months of the Iranian year (March 20 – July 21), registering a whopping 78 percent increase. Percentage of cargo and 33 percent in value.
The Parvez Khan border crossing in 2017 accounted for more than 54 percent of Iranian exports, and its three-month closure for a referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan from the rest of Iraq at the time led to the loss of 3,000 jobs. working in the region on the Iranian side of the border, according to one of the media. Iranian.
In a related context, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi visited the Mandali border crossing between Iraq and Iran in Diyala governorate last July to launch a campaign against corruption at customs points in the country.
During his visit, he said the government would hunt down “ghosts” who cross the border without paying customs duties.
