ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) representative to Iran on Friday told Rudaw that ties between Iran and regional powers, including Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, will further develop following the inauguration of President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran on Thursday.
“Ties with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the region’s countries as well as Iraq will continue and even develop, because with Iran’s situation as a result of the economic embargo and the issues they have, they have always needed the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, and likewise, Kurdistan and Iraq have also needed Iran,” Nazim Dabbagh said.
He also added that the Islamic Republic’s policy for the Middle East, especially Iraq and the Kurdistan Region remains “unchanged.”
Dabagh said that due to the historic and geographic chains “our ties need to be good and take everything into account for the sake of continuous stability.”
Raisi on Thursday said Iran will enter a “new era” after he won the Iranian presidential elections in June by a huge margin, leading his nearest rival by 14.5 million votes.
The election saw a historically low turnout with only 28 million ballots cast of Iran’s potential 60 million voters.
The 60-year-old ultra-conservative former chief justice is considered to be close to Khamenei, and has a dubious human rights record.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani met with the new president in Tehran on Friday where they reaffirmed the importance of developing trade, as well as preserving the security and safety of their shared border and the region in general. He attended Raisi’s swearing-in ceremony the day before.
Raisi praised strong relations between Iran and Iraq, saying, "Today, there are good conditions for strengthening relations in different sectors and in the direction of economic prosperity based on common historical and cultural grounds," according to a statement from his office.
Erbil and Tehran enjoy good relations in some fields, but there are limits, according to Zubair Rasul, an expert in political science and regional relations.
The Kurdistan Region’s “relations with regional countries, especially with Turkey and Iran, have different specializations, but they are limited. No matter how good they are, they have a limit,” Rasul told Rudaw’s Fuad Raheem.
When Barzani arrived in Tehran on Thursday, the flag of the Kurdistan Region was raised at the airport. The Iraqi flag was noticeably absent.
This gesture was done with specific reasoning, according to Rasul. There are “many messages that they want to deliver to other countries,” such as Iran’s archrivals the United States and Saudi Arabia, as well as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), he said.
“If the Kurdistan Region is not friends with Iran, that might be a threat to Iran,” he said, explaining that if the Kurdistan Region cannot find the security and alliances it needs from its neighbours, then the US and other forces may step in.
Iran is also a major trading partner. Since the overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have become two important destinations for Iranian goods.
