Kurdistan deputy prime minister denies US plan regarding Iran's opposition — The National
Qubad Talabani, deputy prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, said in Abu Dhabi that the United States had no plans to move Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan into Iranian territory. According to him, the regional authorities informed both Tehran and Washington of this and also warned opposition groups against using the Kurdistan Region as a launching pad for actions against Iran.
Talabani said this in an interview with The National. He also said that he did not know what weapons for Kurdish groups US President Donald Trump had previously referred to. Talabani stressed that these weapons had not been delivered either to him or to the Kurdistan Region authorities.
Call for dialogue with Tehran
Talabani believes there is now an opportunity to launch a peace process between Iran’s authorities and Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups. As a possible model, he cited the peace process between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The deputy prime minister said that the Kurdistan Region government supported this process by providing incentives and logistical assistance, but the parties themselves must conduct the negotiations.
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According to the Kurdistan Region government, Iran has carried out more than 1,000 drone and missile attacks on the region since February 28. It also says that strikes against opposition groups continued after the end of the war. Last week, Iran’s ambassador in Baghdad said that Iraqi authorities had agreed either to expel Iranian-Kurdish groups based in the region or hand them over to Tehran. Representatives of these groups denied receiving notification of such a decision.
Disarmament of groups in Iraq
Talabani also criticized attacks launched from Iraqi territory against neighboring states, including the UAE. He said that Iraq’s new government is pressuring armed groups to disband and described the disarmament process as already underway. According to him, Kurdish leaders should participate in political decision-making in Baghdad in order to influence the country’s security policy.
Separately, the deputy prime minister acknowledged delays in forming a new Kurdistan Region government. Two years have passed since the parliamentary elections, but the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan have still not reached an agreement on forming a cabinet.
