Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib (Iranian media)

Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib revealed on Sunday that in recent months, Iran has discovered and dismantled 400 explosives in recent months, with 40 of them set to detonate during the holy Islamic month of Muharram, Iranian media reported.

During an Iranian TV show, Khatib discussed hybrid warfare and security, highlighting that more than 50 intelligence agencies used the virtual space to organize various meetings, prepare more than 200 media, and cause sedition and turmoil last year.

According to the Iranian Minister, Iran's enemies are attempting to impose a new type of colonialism on other nations and are waging intelligence warfare against the country.

He noted that the budget allocated to the 50 intelligence agencies working against Iran is more than the country's overall budget.

"Proxy intelligence services like Denmark's operate on behalf of main services like those of the US, UK and Israeli regime," Khatib indicated.

He went on to say that a weapons production factory near Iran's border used to develop weapons and sneak them into Iran.

Elsewhere, the Iranian Intelligence Minister pointed out that the Iraqi Kurdistan region has become a refuge for US and Israeli intelligence agencies.

Earlier on Sunday, Deputy Chief of Operations in the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), General Abbas Nilforoushan, emphasized, once again, that the deadline set for Iraq to disarm terrorist Iranian separatist groups in Northeastern Iraq will expire on September 19.

"We expect the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to show brotherhood. Allowing terrorists to stay in the region, which has become a [launching point] for operations against Iran, does not align with the principles of brotherhood and good neighborliness," the Iranian Tasnim news agency quoted Nilforoushan as saying.

The IRGC official explained that "after continuous negotiations," Iran had reached an agreement with the Iraqi government and the heads of the Iraqi Kurdistan region to disarm terrorists, a process which must be completed before September 19.

He then stressed that if the deadline is not met, Iran will launch a campaign to fight off the terrorists and defend the interests of the Iranian people as it has previously done.

In late August, the spokesperson for the Iraqi government, Basim al-Awadi, said that making sure that Iraq's neighbors are safe is a core principle of Baghdad's foreign policy, adding that this requires security agreements with other nations to be achieved.

The Iraqi official's remarks coincided with a statement of the spokesperson of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanaani, who said, "Iran and Iraq have reached an agreement under which Iraq commits to disarm separatists present in its territory," as well as dismantling their bases and relocating them to areas away from the Iraq-Iran border.

In 2022, Iran submitted over 70 documents to Iraq documenting the presence of armed terrorist groups in the Iraqi Kurdistan region after the IRGC launched a round of missile and drone attacks on "centers of conspiracy and anti-Iran establishments in the region."

At the time, Iran sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council explaining the reasons behind its strikes on the terrorist groups, emphasizing that it had exhausted all other options.

Additionally, the Iraqi government agreed to a plan to redeploy its forces along its borders with Iran and Turkey as part of a broader plan to counter attacks launched by Turkey and Iran against different groups that they view as terrorists.