Kurdish president’s official visit to Iran thaws relations
President of Kurdistan Nechirvan Barzani recently traveled on an official visit to Iran, signalling a thaw in relations between the two countries according to The National News and agencies on May 7th.
“We believe that this visit is a new beginning to the Kurdistan Region’s relations with Iran” reported President Barzani on May 7th.
The semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, located in Northern Iraq, has previously been accused by Iran of harbouring anti-Iran Kurdish dissident groups, in addition to Israeli intelligence centres.
The diplomatic visit reportedly focused on addressing Tehran’s security concerns over Kurdistan’s link to such parties.
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The official delegation sent to Tehran included Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed and several other high-ranking officials.
The visit marks the first time a senior Kurdish official has visited Iran, following an air strike carried out by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in January 2024.
The airstrike targeted a house in Kurdish capital, Erbil. Iran believed the house was a Mossad office.
Five civilians, among them two children, were killed in the airstrike.
Amid Kurdish authorities’ crackdown on Kurdish opposition groups’ freedom of movement the president also said during the visit that, “Armed groups should not exist in the Kurdistan Region and they should not come into Iran, carry out armed activities and return to the Kurdistan region. This is unacceptable”.
President Barzani met President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in addition to other top officials.
President Raisi urged in “preventing the Zionists and anti-Revolution [Iran’s Islamic revolution] elements from using [the] Kurdistan region against Iraq,”.
Meanwhile in 2023 both Iran and Iraq agreed on a security pact to disarm Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.
By September 2023, Baghdad had relocated and disarmed opposition groups from the Iranian border.
The Kurdish region in northern Iraq has long provided bases for Kurdish opposition forces from Turkey and Iran, including the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is also active in Iraq.
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The PKK is currently designated a terrorist group by both the US and European Union.
The region has also sheltered Iranian opposition groups, including the Free Life of Kurdistan and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.
The Iranian government has repeatedly attacked such groups, calling on Baghdad and Kurdistan’s government to expel them.
The National News / Agencies
