Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, poses with Kurdish fighters in Iraq in this undated photo. (photo by Twitter/@Mojtaba_Fathi)

Iran Op-Ed Asks Soleimani To Defend Kobani -- Al-Monitor

The advancement of the Islamic State group (IS) militants on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani near the Syria-Turkey border has alarmed many Iranian citizens, resulting in protests and even an op-ed by an Iranian news site asking the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, to take action.

Protests broke out in several Kurdish cities in western Iran, as well as other cities across country including Tabriz, Mashhad and Tehran itself in front of the Turkish Embassy to express their support for Kobani. Human rights and dissident activists were also in attendance at some of the protests. Iranian Kurdish musicians Shahram Nazeri and Sedigh Tarif have also gone on hunger strike to bring attention to the plight of Kurds in Kobani.

As Kurdish fighters currently engaged in the battle await more air strikes by the United States against IS positions or assistance from Turkey in opening the border to reinforcements, a complicated relationship between Turkey, Kurdish groups in Turkey and Syria and the anti-IS coalition seems to be delaying the more serious action that was seen when IS advanced toward Kurds in Iraq in the summer.

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My Comment: If the Kurds are welcoming someone like the head of Iran’s Quds Force .... it tells me that they are more desperate in their war against the Islamic State than what we are being told. It also tells me that Iran is worried about the rise of the Islamic State .... that they are even willing to work with Kurdish groups who have long supported an independent Kurdistan in the northwestern part of Iran.