Iranian and Iraqi officials discussed ways to increase pressure on Iranian Kurdish opposition groups during a recent visit to Baghdad by Iran’s National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, sources from Iranian Kurdish parties told Iran International.
A senior figure from Iranian Kurdish parties in Sulaymaniyah told Iran International that “one of the topics discussed between Iran and Iraq during Ali Larijani’s trip to Baghdad was the increase of pressure and further restrictions on Kurdish parties.”
Separately, an opposition figure based in Erbil said that “after Larijani’s visit to Iraq, sources in the Kurdistan Regional Government warned all parties that if Israel attacks the Islamic Republic again, the likelihood of threats from Iran against the Kurdistan Region and these parties is serious.”
Both sources confirmed to Iran International that “in the event of a possible next Israeli attack on Iran, the Islamic Republic will react against the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.”
On Wednesday night, Iraq’s National Security Advisory issued a statement saying that the document signed between Baghdad and Tehran during Larijani’s trip was a “security memorandum of understanding for cooperation on border affairs and confronting Iranian Kurdish opposition.”
The statement noted that Iraq already had a security protocol with Iran, signed in March 2023, known as the Joint Security Agreement. That agreement covered “border security and measures to neutralize the activities of Iranian Kurdish opposition forces present in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.”
According to the advisory, the memorandum signed this week was the result of earlier coordination to convert the existing protocol into a formal memorandum of understanding with the same content, including “matters concerning the five Iranian Kurdish opposition parties.”
The statement added that the document was prepared before recent hostilities between Israel and Iran, had been approved by Iraq’s Council of Ministers, and was signed during Larijani’s visit in the presence of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
The advisory stressed that “there is no security agreement between the two countries; rather, it is a security memorandum of understanding.”
According to information obtained by Iran International, another goal of Larijani’s trip was to encourage Shi’ite factions to push for parliamentary approval of a Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) bill.
The PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi, is an umbrella organization of Shi’ite militias formed under the direct supervision of Qasem Soleimani, the late commander of the IRGC Quds Force.
In March 2025, the Iraqi parliament introduced draft legislation seeking to reform the PMF by placing it more firmly under the authority of the prime minister as commander-in-chief, explicitly aiming to limit external influence, including from Iran.
