TEHRAN (Press TV)-- Based on a decision made by Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Iran and Iraq on Monday officially reopened their common Kurdish border.

Deputy Governor General of Iran's Kermanshah Province for political and security affairs, Hojjatollah Damyad told ISNA on Monday that the province had expanded trade exchanges with Iraq's Kurdistan after the fall of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Following the arrest by the U.S. forces of Mahmud Farhadi, an economic advisor to Kermanshah governor general in the Iraqi Kurdistan city of Sulaymaniyah, economic exchanges between the two Iranian and Iraqi provinces were suspended and the border was closed.
Officials of the Iraqi Kurdistan held talks with Iranian officials on reopening the border, he said.
Damyad expressed hope that Farhadi would be released soon through cooperation from Iranian and Iraqi officials, particularly the efforts of the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani.
He dismissed U.S. claims that Farhadi had been meddling in Iraq’s security affairs, saying that “Farhadi’s presence in Iraq's Kurdistan was only aimed at expanding economic ties between the two sides.""
“The U.S. allegation was a sheer lie, which has been repeated on other similar occasions in the past,” the official stated.