Iran offered heavy weaponry to PKK to step back from Turkey withdrawal: Report

ANKARA

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants gather to listen to the speech of the PKK leader on April 25, 2013 in the Qandil mountain, the PKK headquarters in northern Iraq. AFP PHOTO

Iranian intelligence offered the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) heavy weaponry and logistical support to discourage the militant group from the peace process, daily Milliyet claimed today, citing a senior Turkish government official and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.

PKK military leader Murat Karayılan rejected the offer of “heavy weaponry” and “logistical support” by Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Qods Force, to continue militant activities, the report said. It also added that Tehran was conducting “secret diplomacy” to dissuade militants from withdrawing from Turkey.

In interviews with Turkish media, Karayılan had said the PKK had some unused “opportunities” to resume its insurgency. “If we remain open to these [opportunities], there would be many countries in the region against Turkey. We can get foreign support, but on this occasion we did not,” he was quoted as saying by daily Milliyet.