Tehran Says Baghdad Agrees to Disarm Militant Groups Based in Iraq’s Kurdish Region

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters affiliated with Iran's separatist Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), man a position near the city of Altun Kupri (Perdi), north of Kirkuk, in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, on Nov. 23, 2022. (Safin Hamed/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran and Iraq have signed an agreement calling for the disarmament of militant groups based in Baghdad’s autonomous Kurdish region, according to the Iranian foreign ministry.

“An agreement has been struck in which Iraq has committed to disarm separatists and terrorist groups on its territory, close their bases, and relocate them,” Nasser Kanaani, a ministry spokesman, said on Aug. 28.

According to the spokesman, the deal sets a Sept. 19 deadline for implementation of the agreement.  

Mr. Kanaani was cited by Iran’s Fars news agency as saying that Baghdad had conveyed the terms of the deal to the Erbil-based Kurdish Regional Government “and is now awaiting implementation,” reported.

Describing Iran–Iraq ties as “friendly and warm,” he asserted that the “terrorist” presence in the Kurdish region left a “stain” on bilateral ties.

If Iraq fails to fulfill the agreement’s terms, Iran would “act in line with its responsibility to safeguard its interests,” Mr. Kanaani said.

An Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the deal has been signed by both countries, The Associated Press reported.

Iraq is working “as quickly as possible” to disarm the militant groups and move them to designated “camps” in the Kurdish region, the official was cited as saying.

A mansion shows damage following an overnight attack in Erbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, on March 13, 2022. (Safin Hamed/AFP via Getty Images)

Cross-Border Strikes

Iran has long accused Iraq’s Kurdish region of harboring militant groups, which it claims have staged cross-border attacks and sought to foment unrest inside Iran. 

In March 2022, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard pounded Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, with ballistic missiles.

According to Iran, the missile attack targeted Israeli “strategic centers” in retaliation for Israeli air strikes in Syria that had killed Iranian military personnel.

Iran officials also repeated claims that the region was being used—by Kurdish militants, the United States, and the “Zionist entity”—to stage attacks on Iranian targets.

A Kurdish fighter affiliated with the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP–Iran) stands guard on a building following an Iranian cross-border attack in the town of Koye (Koysinjaq) in the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, on Oct. 1, 2022. (Safin Hamed/AFP via Getty Images)

The Kurdish Regional Government said the missiles had struck only residential areas and denied the existence of foreign “strategic centers” on its territory.

Iran carried out similar strikes last fall that hit the office of the Free Kurdistan Party, a dissident Iranian group based near Iraq’s city of Kirkuk, which lies just outside of the Kurdish region.

Soon afterward, Iranian missiles struck the headquarters of the Erbil-based Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Sulaymaniyah-based Komala Party.

Baghdad condemned the strikes, saying that they constituted a “violation of Iraq’s national sovereignty.” 

‘Foreign Actors’

Tehran also accuses Iraq-based Kurdish groups of fomenting unrest in Iranian border cities at the behest of “foreign actors”—a claim that has been vehemently denied by the Kurdish Regional Government.

Last fall, Iran was roiled by violent anti-government protests, which first erupted in Tehran before spreading to other parts of the country.

The demonstrations—Iran called them “riots”—were initially sparked by the death of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman while in police custody.

Iranian demonstrators take to the streets of Iran's capital, Tehran, during a protest for Mahsa Amini on Sept. 21, 2022, five days after the young woman died in custody while under arrest by the country's morality police. (AFP via Getty Images)

At the time, Iran accused foreign intelligence agencies of seeking to “foment civil war” by arming insurgents in Iraq’s Kurdish region, which shares a border with Iran.

Iran frequently accuses Iraq-based Kurdish militant groups of working with Israel, Iran’s perennial foe, and claims that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency is active in the Kurdish region.

The Kurdish Regional Government, for its part, denies the claims, while Israel typically refrains from commenting on the allegations.

Israel Tight-Lipped

In January, a military facility in Iran’s central city of Isfahan was damaged by an aerial drone of unknown origin.

Iran’s Nour news agency—known to be close to Iran’s military establishment—claimed that explosive materials used in the strike had entered Iran from Iraq’s Kurdish region.

The news agency went on to assert that Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq had smuggled the materials across the border “on the orders of a foreign security service.”

Israel refrained from taking responsibility for the incident, but The Wall Street Journal later published an article asserting that Israel was behind the attack. 

Months earlier, Iranian authorities arrested what they described as a “sabotage team” comprised of Kurdish militants who they likewise accused of working for Israel. 

Iranian officials claimed at the time that the team had intended to sabotage a “sensitive” military facility in Isfahan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.