Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed on Thursday to “resolve problems” with the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
Pezeshkian visited Kurdistan on the second day of his official trip to Iraq that he kicked off on Wednesday. He met with several Kurdish officials in the capital Erbil and Sulaymaniyah city.
Kurdistan President Nechervan Barzani described Pezeshkian’s visit as historic, saying Kurdish regions will not be used to threaten Iran’s security.
Pezeshkian is the first Iranian president to visit Kurdistan in an official capacity.
“We enjoy historic and cultural ties with Iran,” Barzani told a press conference.
Discussions focused on bilateral relations, especially in the security field.
“Iran has always stood by our side during difficult times,” Barzani remarked while acknowledging that there are problems with Iran and “we are determined to resolve them.”
Speaking in Kurdish, Pezeshkian said his visit aimed to consolidate ties with Iraq and the Kurdistan region and resolve pending problems.
Pezeshkian and his accompanying delegation held a meeting with Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani. They tackled border, trade and security issues, said a brief government statement.
Problems between Iran and Kurdistan lie in what Tehran says is Erbil’s harboring of armed members of Kurdish Iranian opposition groups.
Baghdad recently announced the closure of dozens of headquarters of these groups.
In March 2023, Iraq and Iran signed a security agreement months after Iran carried out strikes against Kurdish opposition groups in northern Iraq.
Since then, both sides agreed to disarm these groups and repel them from their joint borders.
Tehran accuses the groups of obtaining their weapons from Iraq and of stoking anti-regime protests that erupted in wake of the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
Pezeshkian also met with Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani, inviting him to visit Iran.
The officials exchanged views on general affairs in Iraq and Kurdistan and they agreed to coordinate and bolster political, economic and cultural relations, said a statement from the party.
Pezeshkian held talks with head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Bafel Talabani in Sulaymaniyah.
The PUK, a rival of the KDP, enjoys close ties with the ruling pro-Iran Coordination Framework in Iraq.
Local media said Pezeshkian and PUK leaders discussed bolstering security in border areas to facilitate trade and increase investments.
Pezeshkian is expected to visit the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Friday in a first for an Iranian president in nearly a century.
