Iran says Kurdish militant group PKK disbanding ‘important step'
'We hope that the completion of this process will lead to the promotion of stability and peace in Turkey and the region,' Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement.
The PKK, founded in the late 1970s by Abdullah Ocalan, on Monday announced its dissolution and the end of its four-decade armed struggle against Turkey.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the move, calling it an 'important decision for maintaining peace and fraternity' in the country.
The PKK decision was also welcomed by top officials in Syria and Iraq, as well as the European Union and the United Nations.
Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), a PKK offshoot founded in 2004, has been actively involved in operations against Iranian security forces over the past two decades.
It has fought Iranian forces in ethnic Kurdish districts in mountainous areas along the Iran-Iraq border.
The group, labelled a terrorist organization by Iran, Turkey and the US, sought self-determination through some degree of autonomy for Kurds in Iran.
PJAK's most high-profile attack on Iran was in summer 2011, during a period of intense clashes between the militants and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The clashes led to the deaths of dozens of IRGC forces and over 100 militants, Iranian media reported at the time.
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