Iran reopens Kurdish border crossings

Above: Iranians cross into Iraq at an Iranian border control point in September.

Iran on Monday reopened five border crossing points with Kurdish-run northern Iraq, closed last month by Tehran to protest the U.S. detention of an Iranian official as the Americans step up allegations that the Iranians are fueling the violence in Iraq...

The Iranian border points were closed to protest the U.S. detention of an Iranian official who the military said was a member of the paramilitary Quds Force, a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that is accused of providing arms and training to Shiite extremists...

The border points, which had been shut down on Sept. 24, were reopened after a Kurdish delegation traveled to Iran to complain the region should not be punished for something the Americans did. Iraqi and Iranian authorities have claimed that the detained Iranian, Mahmoud Farhadi, was in Iraq on official business and demanded his release.

A spokesman for the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq, Jamal Abdullah, expressed hope the resumed flow of traffic and goods would help reduce price hikes that had plagued the region since the closures.

Iranian closing of northern border causes shortages in Kurdish Iraq

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