An official in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq said the region rejects the use of its territory to launch attacks against neighboring countries, while emphasizing that decisions regarding such matters fall under the authority of the federal government in Baghdad.
Iranian drones and missiles have not left the skies over the region during the past five days of the ongoing war between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel on the other.
According to information obtained by Alhurra from security sources, the Kurdistan Region has been targeted since the beginning of the confrontation last Saturday by more than 200 Iranian ballistic missiles and drones. Some were launched directly from Iran, while others were fired by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias from within Iraqi territory.
The city of Erbil, the capital of the region, has borne the brunt of the attacks, while the cities of Sulaymaniyah and Duhok experienced fewer strikes. U.S. deterrence systems succeeded in intercepting the majority of the missiles and drones.
Despite the intensity of the Iranian attacks, the region continues to emphasize its commitment to neutrality in the war.
Sefin Dizayee, head of the Department of Foreign Relations in the Kurdistan Regional Government, said Tuesday that “the region is not part of the ongoing conflict and does not aspire to become an arena for settling regional scores.” He added that Erbil always seeks to be a factor of stability in the region.
During a press conference in Erbil, Dizayee stressed that the region has not and will not allow its territory to be used as a launch point for attacks against neighboring countries, and that it seeks to strengthen good-neighborly relations and extend friendship to all.
The border between Iran and the Kurdistan Region stretches about 750 kilometers, out of the roughly 1,600-kilometer Iraqi-Iranian border. Since 2023, it has been controlled by Iraqi border guard forces following a security agreement between Baghdad and Tehran aimed at regulating the border between the two countries.
Under the agreement, the headquarters of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties were moved away from the border into camps inside the region after they were disarmed. However, this step has not protected the region in recent years from attacks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Leaders of the Iranian Kurdish opposition who spoke to Alhurra say Tehran has long regarded the region as a genuine threat to Iranian security and has not stopped attempts to attack it.
Ahmad Bakr, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), pointed out that despite being attacked multiple times, the region consistently refuses to become a party to any conflict.
He said: “The Kurdistan Region will not allow its territory to become a launching point for a ground attack on Iran or any other country. Over the past years, the region has prevented Kurdish opposition groups to Iran from using its territory as a base for attacks against Iran. If it did not allow those Kurdish groups to launch attacks from its territory, how would it allow other forces to do so?”
During remarks delivered Tuesday while inaugurating the Al-Majidi Hospital in Erbil, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani called on the federal government to take serious and decisive steps to prevent “terrorists” from continuing their attacks on Kurdistan. He warned that the region would not be able to remain silent indefinitely in the face of these repeated assaults.
Bakr stressed that the missile attacks targeting Kurdistan are acts of aggression and argued that the Iraqi government has a responsibility to respond to any attacks on the region, since it is a federal region within Iraq.
The Kurdistan Region and the federal government in Baghdad agree on the need to maintain neutrality in conflicts and prevent escalation. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, during an emergency meeting of the National Security Ministerial Council on Tuesday, reiterated that Iraq would remain committed to preventing escalation and ensuring that its territory is not used for external or internal conflicts, while preserving stability for citizens and the region.
International relations expert Hassan Ahmed Mustafa told Alhurra that allowing Kurdistan Region territory to be used for any ground attack against Iran is not within the region’s authority but falls under the jurisdiction of the Iraqi government, adding that the region cannot independently control how its territory might be used. He also noted that the region itself does not want to become entangled in any conflicts.
Mustafa did not hide the Kurdistan Region’s frustration over the continued missile attacks, noting that the region is waiting for a broader solution to the crisis at the Middle East level, since dissatisfaction by one party alone cannot change the current situation.
Over the past two days, headquarters of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region have been subjected to intensive Iranian missile and drone attacks. These strikes targeted bases and refugee camps of the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party in Koya (Koysanjak). One drone struck the Azadi Camp Hospital in Koya on Tuesday, according to a party leader who spoke to Alhurra.
The attack wounded a hospital staff member. Meanwhile, facilities belonging to the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) were targeted by drone strikes. These attacks coincided with other strikes on the headquarters of the Komala Party in the Zargwez area of Sulaymaniyah province.
The Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Region were also not spared. They too were targeted by Iranian drones in the Dikla area of Erbil province.
Political analyst Shaho Qaradaghi, of the Raman Center for Research and Consulting, said that dragging the region into major regional conflicts is unacceptable to the Kurdish leadership, as it seeks to avoid turning the region into “a block of fire.”
“Iran uses the presence of opposition headquarters or Mossad cells in the region as a pretext to justify its attacks,” Qaradaghi told Alhurra, “but the real objective of the strikes on the Kurdistan Region is political and economic pressure aimed at forcing the region into submission.”
Qaradaghi believes the region’s options for a direct military response are limited, emphasizing that the response will likely be confined to diplomatic and international action. This would include seeking assistance from the international community and the United States to pressure Tehran, calling for the activation of air defense systems to protect the skies, strengthening the internal front, and unifying Kurdish political ranks to reduce vulnerabilities exploited by external actors.
He added that pressing Baghdad to assume responsibility for protecting Iraq’s borders and the Kurdistan Region is also a key part of responding to these attacks.
In his view, the region prefers political resilience and reliance on international and constitutional legitimacy rather than being drawn into a direct military confrontation or allowing its territory to be used as a battlefield for a ground war—because doing so would mean the end of the relative stability it currently enjoys.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
