Reports of Iran-Kurdish peace talks meet deep distrust

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan President Bafel Talabani said at the MERI Forum in Erbil on Oct. 12 that his party had discussed a peace process with Iranian leaders and that Tehran responded positively. Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, at the same forum, criticized exiled Iranian Kurdish factions for acting “very irresponsibly” during the Israeli-US war on Iran and said it was unreasonable for armed groups to operate from the Kurdistan region and threaten neighbors. Iranian authorities have not publicly confirmed the process Talabani described; Tehran’s ambassador to Baghdad instead claimed a deal to remove exiled groups or hand over their fighters, while the Iranian military continues to strike bases used by Kurdish factions across the border. After an Oct. 19 meeting of the joint Iran-Iraq security committee, Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Kazem Aal-e Sadeq wrote on X that the sides had agreed to remove members of what he called “Iranian separatist terrorist groups” from Iraqi Kurdistan or hand them over to Iran. An Iraqi participant in the meeting told Rudaw that no new agreement was reached, and KRG Interior Minister Reber Ahmed said KRG officials did not attend. A KDPI official, speaking anonymously, said Tehran “just wants to buy time”; PAK spokesperson Khalil Nadiri called the talks a “baseless rumor,” and Komala and PJAK also denied contacts. The article says strikes from Iran and Iran-aligned groups inside Iraq had reportedly killed 19 members of the opposition parties by mid-October.