Earlier this week, media outlets in Iran released two short films featuring a dramatized version of Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani’s actions to aid the Kurdistan Region during the ISIS war, which provoked intense criticism from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) for its depiction of party leader and former president of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani.

The current President Barzani said in a statement that the films were “humiliating” to the resistance of the Kurdistan Region’s people and leadership and to the Peshmerga’s heroism and their “martyrs’ blood.” He added that it was also disrespectful to “the martyred commander Qassem Soleimani.”

“We do not see any advantage in producing low-level films and that are far from the reality like this, other than as an attempt to spoil regional cooperation and generate disputes between the friendly peoples in the area,” he said, calling on Iran to take a strong stance against the films, which he said have “wounded the feelings of the people of Kurdistan.”

He also said that Iran’s military assistance during the war against ISIS militants strengthened ties between the Kurdistan Region and Iran.

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