Nazim Dabagh, who is the veteran representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Tehran, told Rudaw on Monday that recent remarks by top Iranian officials regarding the KRG’s further push for self-rule is in line with decade-long Iranian policy on Iraq and its northern Kurdistan Region.
“We need to remember that the Islamic Republic’s role in supporting the current experiment in the Kurdistan Region, which is federalism, has been a significant one, and it was the first country that officially opened its consulate in Kurdistan Region and only the second country whose foreign minister was here, both in Erbil and Sulaimani, to open their offices,” Dabagh said.
Earlier this week, a visiting Kurdish delegation in Tehran told Rudaw the Iranian government representatives were taking a “waiting and see” position with regard to the Kurdish quest for full independence in Iraq and were likely to support it, if Kurdish secession from the country did not “pose a threat” to Iran’s stability.
The new Iranian remarks stand in contrast to the official and more public stance of the Islamic Republic, which has in the past favored a unified Iraq.
“I can say that the Islamic Republic has so far not rejected the status quo in the Kurdistan Region,” Dabagh said. “But they stress the unity of Iraq and rely on relations between the KRG and Baghdad.”
Iran’s influence in Iraq has seen an unprecedented upsurge since 2003 following the ouster of former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, a secular Sunni despot and an arch enemy of the Shiite establishment in Tehran who waged an 8-year-long war against the Islamic Republic in the 1980s.
Nearly all current Shiite political factions in Iraq, including the ruling Daawa and the Islamic Council, were founded in Tehran in the early years of the war, with many of the factions still enjoying close ties with the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s pivotal role in the war against ISIS in Iraq is believed to have boosted Tehran’s influence in the country even further after Iranian troops were directly involved in recapturing several areas in Iraq.
Although Kurdish officials have said the question of independence will ultimately be dealt with within Iraq itself, many believe the support or opposition of Turkey and Iran will be crucial to the survival of the landlocked Kurdistan Region after its possible independence.
“The reality is that the Iranian leaders have said in the past that they do not support independence and want Iraq to remain united. But we need to work for it together and face the consequences whatever they may be,” said Kurdish political pundit Fareed Assassard.
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