2026-03-31T13:50:32+00:00

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Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign
Minister Fuad Hussein stated on Tuesday that Baghdad has not armed Iranian
opposition groups present on Iraqi soil, reaffirming the government’s rejection
of US and Israeli military operations against Iran.

Speaking in an interview with Al-Arabiya
Al-Hadath television, Hussein said that mutual strikes on Iraqi territory —conducted
by both Iran and the United States— have effectively drawn Iraq into the war
without a formal government decision to that effect. He attributed the
escalation to weak internal control over armed factions, noting that Iraq’s
armed groups do not hold the authority to declare war or peace on behalf of the
state.

Hussein denied the existence of any armed
activity by Iranian opposition groups operating from Iraqi soil, stating that
these factions are present in camps in a refugee capacity. The Iranian Kurdish
opposition groups —exile parties including the Kurdistan Democratic Party of
Iran, the Komala Party, and the Kurdistan Freedom Party— have maintained camps
in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq for decades.

Read more: Iraqi–Iranian Security MoU rekindles a decade of border deals—and old controversies

Tehran has long accused these groups of crossing
the border to attack its forces or of inciting unrest in its Kurdish-populated
areas.

Qubad Talabani, Deputy Prime Minister of the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), confirmed in an interview with Agence
France-Presse last week that the Kurdish authorities had seen no effort by any
US body to arm Iranian opposition groups in Kurdistan, adding that
discussions held with the United States, Iran, and local groups had made clear
that there was currently no plan to deploy these factions inside Iran. Talabani
also stated that the KRG had communicated to all opposition groups that it
would not permit them to serve as a frontline force, and that this position had
been conveyed to all parties involved.

In 2023, Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region and
Iran, signed a security agreement to secure shared borders and curtail the
armed activity of Iranian Kurdish opposition groups operating from Iraqi
territory. The deal has come under strain following repeated strikes on Iranian
Kurdish opposition camps in the Region. At the start of the current conflict on Feb.25, Talabani
said Tehran had asked Iraqi Kurdistan to do what it could to protect the shared
border, a request “the KRG intended to honor out of respect for
bilateral relations.”