Iran says Iraq will expel exiled Kurdish opposition

Iran’s ambassador to Iraq said Tuesday that Baghdad had agreed to expel or hand over members of Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.

Mohammad Kazem Al-Sadegh wrote on X that the agreement was reached during a meeting of a joint security commission attended by an Iranian delegation and Iraq’s national security adviser.

Senior Iraqi security officials had repeatedly told AFP that Baghdad was refusing to expel or hand over the Kurdish exiles because it feared for their lives.

Iraq’s Kurdistan region has long hosted camps and bases for Iranian Kurdish rebel groups. Tehran calls the groups terrorists and says they serve US or Israeli interests.

Baghdad and Tehran signed a border security agreement in 2023 aimed at strengthening security along their shared frontier and “neutralising the Kurdish opposition.” Under that deal, Iraqi authorities disarmed the Iranian Kurdish groups, moved them away from the border and transferred them to camps.

Iran has resumed deadly attacks on the Kurdish groups since war broke out in the Middle East in late February. Five of the groups had announced a political alliance on February 22 aimed at overthrowing Iran’s government and securing Kurdish self-determination.