Interventions by Iraqi federal forces in northern Iraq following the independence referendum held by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) could imperil the Kurdish autonomy project in northern Syria. Iraqi government forces took over the Rabia border crossing to Syria on Oct. 17 and are now bargaining to share control of the Fish Khabur crossing with the Iraqi Kurds. The draft agreement put forth in negotiations with Kurdish representatives calls for joint administration of Fish Khabur by Iraqi federal forces, Kurdish peshmerga and the international coalition.

The new setup of the two border crossings will likely affect the future of the Kurdish autonomy project known as the Northern Syria Democratic Federation. Fish Khabur, on the Tigris River, is not an official crossing, but since the Kurds began to dominate northern Syria in July 2012, it has been used for crossing into Iraqi Kurdistan. The Syrian side of the crossing is called Semelka.

Under pressure from Turkey, then-KRG President Massoud Barzani closed the Fish Khabur/Semelka crossings and imposed an embargo on Rojava. The blockade was at times relaxed under US prodding to allow freedom of movement to the US-backed People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish force that was fighting the Islamic State (IS). The crossing operated generally according to the needs of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Until June 2014, when IS captured Mosul, Kurds were also using the Rabia crossing. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and other Kurds, which developed several unofficial crossings for their fight against IS at Sinjar in Iraq, thought a blockade against IS would be weakened if Rabia were to come under Iraqi federal control. At a time when Baghdad was having problems both with Ankara and the KRG, Iraq considered the PKK presence in the area as a balancing factor against the KRG's peshmerga. With this policy, Baghdad turned a blind eye to the YPG’s use of the Rabia crossing between 2012-2014, and also started to pay salaries of Yazidis organized by the PKK to fight IS.