{"id":252895,"date":"2026-08-17T15:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/252895\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T15:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:07:09","slug":"barzani-emerges-as-key-mediator-between-us-iran-kurds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/252895\/","title":{"rendered":"Barzani emerges as key mediator between US, Iran, Kurds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq<\/a> is uniquely placed at the intersection of several powerful states and regional trends, enabling it to play an important role beyond the size of the autonomous region.<\/p>\n

Rarely do states or autonomous regions play such an important role in international relations and regional stability.<\/p>\n

According to Iran International, \u201cIraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani played a role in relaying messages between the United States and Iran and in efforts to ease tensions, a spokesperson confirmed to Iran International on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an important development. It confirms reporting by Axios that said in \u201cmid-May, US negotiators trying to reach a deal with Iran to end the war ran into a problem: They couldn\u2019t tell if the people across the table actually spoke for the country\u2019s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).\u201d<\/p>\n

That report noted that the Trump administration \u201cwent around Iran\u2019s negotiators and reached out directly to IRGC leadership. The person they tapped for the back channel was Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region in Iraq, who had something very few others do: the trust of both US and IRGC leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NechirvanNechirvan Barzani, President of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region, gives a joint press conference with France’s Foreign Minister in Arbil, the regional capital, on February 5, 2026. (credit: SAFIN HAMID\/AFP via Getty Images)Barzani\u2019s regional diplomatic role<\/p>\n

Barzani is a highly competent leader who has been president of the Kurdistan Region (KRG) for most of the last decade. He has long been seen as a figure who prefers diplomacy and quiet work behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Barzani has often sought to advance the region\u2019s interests through economic development. He came to power when the region was under pressure from Iran and Baghdad. This was in the wake of an independence referendum that saw the KRG isolated.<\/p>\n

Today the KRG has good relations with Turkey, Baghdad, the US, the Gulf, Europe and many countries. It also has relatively decent ties with Iran.<\/p>\n

These ties are tested by the fact that Iran has backed more than 1,000 attacks on the Kurdistan Region<\/a>. Barzani has sought to prevent the attacks while not escalating tensions. What we now know is that Nechirvan Barzani was also playing a role behind the scenes to try to reduce tensions in the region.<\/p>\n

As Iran International noted, \u201cthe confirmation follows an earlier Axios report that the Trump administration turned to Barzani in May to establish a direct channel with the leadership of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the consistent principles of Barzani\u2019s policy is that problems and disagreements should be resolved through dialogue and negotiations,\u201d a KRG spokesperson named Dilshad Shahab said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kurdistan Region of Iraq, before the war, during the war and afterward, has consistently emphasized that dialogue and negotiations are the only way to resolve existing disputes and tensions,\u201d he said, according to Iran International.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Kurdistan Regional Government official separately told Iran International that Barzani had been asked to play the role because of his good relations with both the United States and Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barzani had to flee with his family when he was younger, leaving Iraq to move to Iran because of suppression of Kurds. He studied in Iran and is very knowledgeable about the country. Kurds are a large minority group who reside in Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey. As such, the Kurdistan Region in Iraq sits as a kind of hinge between Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.<\/p>\n

Kurdistan\u2019s role in Syria and Turkey<\/p>\n

Barzani has played a role not only in working with the US and Iran but also in trying to ease issues in Syria. In Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)<\/a> are supposed to integrate into the new Syrian government\u2019s security forces. However, this process has been fraught with challenges.<\/p>\n

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has stepped in to help smooth things over in Syria. One issue is that the SDF\u2019s political arm had often suppressed Kurdish groups linked to the KRG. The KRG\u2019s leading party is the KDP, which the Barzani family leads. The SDF and its political arm were far-left-leaning in their outlook and were accused of being linked to the PKK.<\/p>\n

The PKK and KDP are rivals, with the KDP expressing a more nationalist and centrist form of Kurdish politics, in contrast to the PKK\u2019s far-left communist background. The KRG and KDP enjoy amicable relations with Turkey, while Ankara views the PKK as a terrorist group.<\/p>\n

This all matters because Barzani has played a role in trying to smooth these tensions in Syria and also in northern Iraq, where the Turkish army operates against the PKK. The PKK is supposed to disarm and dissolve itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As such, the Kurdistan Region today has a role to play not only in easing friction with Turkey, but also in Syria and Iran. It also has a role to play in backing Baghdad\u2019s attempt to disarm Iranian-backed militias. Therefore, Barzani, and to a larger extent the region he leads, can be a key to peace in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kurdistan Region of Iraq is uniquely placed at the intersection of several powerful states and regional trends,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[34,94,26027,362,277,26271,225],"class_list":["post-252895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-kurdish-controlled-syria","tag-kurdistan","tag-kurds","tag-peace-in-the-middle-east","tag-us-iran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117111478477967852","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}