The existence of Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Erbil has been irritating Iran. The Iranian government is more upset by Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic mission in the Kurdish Region than by the existence of the US and British consulates in Erbil or even by American intentions to build one of the biggest consulate compounds in the capital of Kurdistan.
A ranking commander from Iran’s Quds Force last week indirectly accused Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Erbil of attempting to revitalize and incite the political parties of eastern Kurdistan to action against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The warmth of relations between Erbil and Ankara is felt and reflected even in the media. The same warmth cannot be felt in the relations between Erbil and Tehran, in spite of Iran’s many more political maneuvers in the Kurdistan Region and broader Iraq.
Many people take this to be a sign of bad relations between Erbil and Tehran which they both deny in the media. However, some think that their relations aren’t that bad and are rather behind the scenes.
The Kurdish President Masoud Barzani recently met with an Iranian delegation headed by the country’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on the sidelines of Munich Security Conference in Germany, who again extended Iran’s invitation for Barzani to visit Tehran.
A former Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) politburo member Faraydun Abdulqadir has revealed that Iran’s rejection to put up the Kurdish flag as part of the reception protocol made Barzani decide not to accept Tehran’s invitation for a state visit.
It appears that Iran now has the intention to put up the Kurdish flag while receiving the Kurdish president, which is probably why they have again extended the invitation to Barzani in Munich.
This along with the statement from the Iranian Quds Force commander indicates that Erbil and Tehran are both upset with each other, and have not yet been able to fix their disagreements through the diplomatic channels which currently exist between the two.
The rhetoric of the advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the country’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani and its military commanders shows that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not accept the question of the Kurdish independence to be raised even as a joke. Iran interprets the opening of Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Erbil to be intended to further develop the platform for Kurdish independence which Tehran regards as a threat to its national security.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently have been getting tougher on Iran whose tone is getting softer towards the west in response. It might, after all, be a good time for the Kurdistan Region to visit Tehran and allay their concerns. The reality is that the Kurdistan Region can never rest in peace by being hostile or posing a threat on a big country like Iran, even if the region becomes a state.
Recent remarks from Iranian officials about the Kurdish independence remind us of the time when the Republic of Azerbaijan was established after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tehran had a negative stance on then nascent state of Azerbaijan, fearing that an Azerbaijani state might promote nationalistic feelings among its Azeri populations. Turkey benefited from this. Iran, however, has only recently been starting to rectify the mistakes it made towards the establishment of the state of Azerbaijan.
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