ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iraqi source on Tuesday denied a reported agreement to expel Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region after Iran’s ambassador to Iraq said they had “agreed” to expel or hand over the groups to Tehran during a Baghdad-Tehran security committee meeting a day prior.
A source who participated in that security committee meeting told Rudaw’s Malik Mohammed that “the expulsion or handing over of the Iranian Kurdish opposition groups that are in the Kurdistan Region was not discussed at the meeting, and no new agreement was reached on this matter.”
According to the source, apart from the meeting between the border guard commands of both sides, no other meeting between the two countries took place this week.
The same day, spokesperson for the commander in chief of Iraq’s armed forces Sabah Numan told Rudaw’s Malik Mohammed that the meetings discussed the “protection of border security, assessment of the situation at the border, in addition to modes of coordination and exchanging information between both sides, to guarantee security along the Iraq-Iran border.”
Their remarks came after Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Mohammed Kazem Al-e Sadegh claimed earlier in a post on X on Tuesday that the two countries had agreed to either “expel” Iranian Kurdish opposition groups from Iraq or “hand them over to Iran.”
The ambassador said the decision was reached during a Monday meeting by the joint committee overseeing a March 2023 security agreement, attended by Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Aboudi, Iranian representatives and a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) delegation.
Iranian Kurdish opposition groups also rejected disarmament and said they have not received anything official from Iraq or the KRG.
Hama Nazif Ghaderi, head of KDPI public relations, told Rudaw English neither the Iraqi federal government nor the KRG had informed his party of any decisions made during Monday's joint security meeting between Iraqi, Iranian and Kurdish officials in Baghdad.
Ghaderi further added that the party would not lay down its weapons or abandon its struggle for Kurdish rights, dismissing Tehran's demands as illegitimate, insisting that the party's armed activities were directed at defending Kurds inside Iran, where he accused the authorities of widespread repression.
Amjad Hussein Panahi, head of communications for the Iranian Kurdish opposition group Komala, and Adib Khalidiyan, head of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) relations, separately told Rudaw’s Soran Hussein on Tuesday that authorities in Baghdad and Erbil had not notified their parties of any decision requiring them to leave the Kurdistan Region.
While opposition groups maintain their respective armed wings, Iran has continued attacks on opposition bases in near Erbil and Sulaimani despite an absence of active military offensives against Iran from within the Kurdistan Region in recent years, with notable attacks in September and October.
Iraq and Iran signed a security agreement on March 19, 2023, under which Baghdad committed to disarming Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based along the shared border and relocating them away from areas bordering Iran.
In September of that year, Iraqi authorities announced that the groups had been disarmed and their border headquarters evacuated, with arrangements underway to accommodate their members as refugees.
