Torn between Iran and the United States, former Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani appeared to distance himself on Tuesday from Republican proposals to station US troops in Kurdish territory should Baghdad move forward with threats to expel the Americans in the aftermath of Washington’s assassination of Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani.

“If the process of resolving the current issue in the Middle East region is in accordance to a path of reason and wisdom, we are certainly ready to cooperate,” Barzani tweeted. “However, we cannot be involved in any proxy wars.”

Why it matters: After the Iraqi Parliament voted Sunday to expel US forces and all other foreign troops in the country, Republican lawmakers in Washington began floating Iraqi Kurdistan as a future location to station American troops.

“There remains an option that our presence in what is currently Iraq would be at the behest of the Kurds,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told reporters on Monday. “In the end, I don’t think it’s going to come to that because I think the Sunnis — and especially the Kurds — would want us to stay even if it’s in the northern part of the country at their invitation.”