Iraqi Kurds insist on neutrality while ‘there is no clarity for us on what the U.S. policy is’ on Iran
Iraq’s Kurds are caught in a three-way vise as the Iran war spills across their border:
- They’re uncertain, based on President Trump’s messaging, whether the U.S. actually wants regime change next door.
- They’re under pressure to open the border from Iranian Kurds who want to fight the regime.
- And they’re facing a public threat — backed by a private warning — that Iran will retaliate if those militants attack from Iraqi Kurdish soil.
Why it matters: The Kurds of northern Iraq have carved out a stable, semi-autonomous region in one of the world’s most volatile neighborhoods. Now, the war next door is threatening to make their neutrality impossible to hold.
- “The Kurds must not be the tip of the spear in this conflict,” a senior Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official told Axios.
Zoom in: Iraq’s Kurdish government prides itself on talking to all sides. But Iran changed its otherwise friendly tone Friday in a stark communique about Iranian Kurdish militants sheltering across the border.
- “Should their continued presence and plotting be permitted, or should these groups or [Zionist] regime elements enter the borders of the Islamic Republic through the Region, all facilities of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq … will be targeted on a massive scale,” Ali Akbar Ahmadian, an Iranian Defense Council official, said in a written statement.
- Iranian officials called the Iraqi Kurdish government on Friday to draw attention to the post and make clear it was official policy, the KRG official said.
- “They don’t need hypersonic missiles to hurt us. 200 Shahed drones could cause a lot of damage here. We have no air defense systems. We don’t have any ways to knock these things out of the skies,” the official warned.