TEHRAN, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Tuesday denied that it helped Iraqi central government take full control over the disputed region of Kirkuk, which was previously controlled by the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Tasnim news agency reported.
"Iran has no role in the Kirkuk operation," Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Tuesday on the sidelines of his meeting with France's special envoy for Syria in Tehran.
On Monday, the Iranian official said that the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces' withdrawal from the city of Kirkuk put an end to "a dangerous plot hatched against regional security."
The objective of Masoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, was seizing Kirkuk's oil wells in favor of Israel, Velayati was quoted by the Tasnim News Agency as saying.
It was "a dangerous plot" in the region, but the Iraqi government powerfully foiled it, Velayati added.
