ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iranian Kurdish groups based in the Kurdistan Region have rejected a recent proposal from Iraqi Shiite members of parliament calling on armed factions opposed to the Islamic Republic to leave the Iraqi territory.
A spokesperson for the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party (HDK) described the petition, which was proposed to the Iraqi parliament last week by the Shiite majority block the State of Law, “uncalled for” and without legal backing.
Aso Hasanzada told Rudaw the proposal is a political project that lacked bases in international law and customs.
“It has no judiciary justification,” Hasanzade said referring to the proposition. “Because if it was drafted against a group of political dissidents in this country, then we should remember that these people have a right to stay in Iraq as asylum-seekers and be engaged in politics,” he added.
The State of Law proposal says that Baghdad should disarm “any group that launches attacks on neighboring countries from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region” or ask them to leave the country if the groups refused to disarm.
Although the proposal addresses all armed groups that are potentially opposed to Iraq’s neighboring governments, the KDP-I and Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are seen as main reasons behind the draft.
The KDP-I has recently accelerated its anti-regime campaigns in Iran, including sporadic border clashes with Iranian forces. The PKK has a notable military presence in bordering areas in Iraq and maintains its main headquarters in the Qandil Mountain on the Turkish border.
Iran and Turkey have in the past urged Iraqi and Kurdish officials to expel armed groups opposed to Ankara and Tehran.
“I don’t think the proposal will be implemented,” said Taimour Mustafayi, a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (HDKA).
“We will not abide by it. We are an Iranian Kurdish opposition group based in the Kurdistan Region but our campaign is and will continue in Eastern (Iranian) Kurdistan. Only women and children and families of our Peshmerga are based inside the Kurdistan Region,” Mustafayi said refusing claims that his group launched attacks from inside of the Iraqi territory.
The KDP-I, which is based mainly in the Kurdistan Region, announced it will bring its fight closer to the Kurdish areas in Iran after years of non-violent movements outside Iranian Kurdistan.
Iran has said its intelligence agencies have boosted their collection of information and surveillance in northern Iraq to counter what they see as terror threats from Iranian Kurdish separatists.
Commander of the ground troops of the elite revolutionary guards Mohammd Pakpour said the upsurge of surveillance was due to the “armed Kurdish groupings” based inside the Kurdistan Region who he said planned to harm the Islamic Republic.
Tehran has in the past accused its regional rival Saudi Arabia of arming and funding Iranian Kurdish groups opposed to the Islamic Republic allegedly through its consulate in Erbil, a claim Kurdish officials have categorically rejected.
The KDP-I has accused Tehran of masterminding the deadly bomb attacks that targeted its headquarters in Koya, Kurdistan Region in December killing 6 people and wounding 4 others. Iran has not commented on the allegations.
