Leader of Islamic Revolution said the recent independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan indicates that major powers aim to create "a new Israel" in the region.
"The United States and unreliable foreign powers want to create a new Israel in the region," Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said in a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Tehran on Wednesday, according to the website leader.ir.
The Leader castigated the secessionist move by the Kurdistan Regional Government as an "act of treason" against the region, which threatens its future.
"Turkey and Iran should do everything possible to counter this development and the Iraqi government needs to make a serious decision in this regard and take action," Ayatollah Khamenei told the visiting Turkish leader.
Erdogan said there is "irrefutable evidence" that that the US and Israel have reached a broad agreement on the issue of Kurdistan's independence.
"Iraq's neighbors will certainly reject this decision, so Kurdish officials will not be able to take any step and will go nowhere [in their push for independence]," he underlined.
Earlier in the day, the Turkish president held talks with President Hassan Rouhani and attended a session of the Turkey-Iran High Level Cooperation Council, in which the two sides signed cooperation agreements on banking and customs, among other areas. The meeting of the two presidents and related news is covered in a separate article on page 2.
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