Iranupdated 1h ago3 min read
Iran’s Ambassador Al-e Sadegh Says Tehran and Baghdad Will Expel PDKI From Kurdistan
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Iran and Iraq agreed to expel Iranian Kurdish separatist groups from the Kurdistan Region. Alternatively, the groups could be handed over to Iran under the agreement.
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Tehran and Baghdad pact
Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Mohammad Kazem Al-e Sadegh said Tehran and Baghdad reached an agreement on “mop-up operations” against the “main bastions and headquarters” of anti-Iran terrorist groups in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region and to expel separatists from the area. Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Mohammad Kazem Al-Sadiq wrote on X that visiting Iranian delegates and Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji agreed that separatist terrorist elements operating in the autonomous Kurdistan Region must be “either flushed out or handed over to Iran.” The agreement was described as part of security cooperation after Iran and Iraq signed a security agreement in Baghdad in March 2023 covering coordination in protecting the shared border.
The sources also tied the announcement to Iran’s designation of Kurdish terrorist and separatist groups serving “Western and Israeli interests” as terrorist organizations by Iran. The sources further referenced that five Kurdish separatist groups, including the so-called Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), announced a political coalition in late February to challenge the Islamic establishment in Iran and seek secession of Kurdish areas.
What Iraq’s side says
The Iraqi National Security Advisor’s office statement described a meeting chaired by Qasim al-ʿAbūdī that aimed to strengthen mechanisms of cooperation and coordination among the Federal Government, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and the Iranian side. The same source said the Monday statement from Iraq did not mention expelling Iranian Kurdish opposition groups or handing their members to Tehran, even as Mohammad Kadhim Al-Sadiq claimed Iraq had agreed to either expel or hand them over. The source said the meeting was chaired by Qasim al-ʿAbūdī, with Iranian officials and a delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq also present, and it addressed unresolved issues identified in previous talks.
The source added that Mohammad Kadhim Al-Sadiq told Tasnim News Agency on Sunday, the 26th of Mehr, that disarming Iranian Kurdish opposition groups and relocating them from border areas deeper into the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is underway. The source framed Iran’s position as a “red line” for Iran’s shared borders and a prerequisite for stability and development of the region.
Border security and refugees
The sources said Iran’s ambassador tied the agreement to implementing the Tehran-Baghdad security agreement that required Baghdad to secure the common border, disarm Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, and move them away from border areas with Iran. The sources stated that the agreement followed Iranian rocket and drone attacks on the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in September 2022 that caused at least 16 deaths and 50 injuries, and that Tehran gave Baghdad a deadline of 28 Shahrivar 1402 (18 September 2023). The sources said that on the final day of the deadline, Iraqi authorities announced that the targeted groups had been disarmed and their border bases evacuated, and that preparations were underway to formally recognize them as refugees.
The sources reported that Al-ʿAbūdī said Baghdad agreed to establish camps for members of Iranian opposition parties and their families in areas far from the Iranian border, and that the United Nations was reviewing asylum requests for thousands of these people. The sources also stated that the UN Refugee Agency’s estimate put the number of Iranian Kurdish refugees in Iraq between 10,000 and 30,000, most of them in the Kurdistan Region.