Iran says deal reached with Iraq to expel Kurdish separatists: What to know

Iran said on Tuesday it reached an agreement with Iraq to expel Iranian Kurdish separatist groups from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region as Iranian security forces intensify a crackdown against Kurdish groups concentrated in the country’s northwest.

What happened: Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad, Mohammad Kazem Al-e Sadegh, said in an X post that the agreement was reached during a meeting of the joint security committee attended by an Iranian delegation and Iraq’s national security adviser, Qasim al-Aboudi, as part of security cooperation between the neighboring countries.

في إطار التعاون الأمني بين الجمهورية الإسلامية الإيرانية وجمهورية العراق، اتفق الجانبان خلال اجتماع اللجنة الأمنية المشتركة ، بحضور الوفد الإيراني ومستشار الأمن القومى العراقي، على اخراج عناصر الجماعات الانفصاليه الإرهابية الإيرانية من إقليم كردستان العراق أو تسليمهم لإيران. https://t.co/BFr346OpAf

— محمد كاظم آل صادق (@mohkasadegh) October 20, 2026

Under the agreement, members of “the Iranian separatist terrorist groups” operating in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region must be “either removed or handed over to Iran,” Sadegh said.

A statement from the Iraqi national security adviser’s office on Monday said Aboudi chaired a meeting in Baghdad attended by a high-level delegation from Iran, members of the Iraqi federal government and a government delegation from the Kurdistan Region to discuss a 2023 security agreement reached between Tehran and Baghdad.

The meeting also explored ways to strengthen cooperation and coordination mechanisms among the three parties to facilitate the implementation of the agreement’s provisions. The statement did not mention a deal to expel Kurdish militants from Kurdistan.

In March 2023, Tehran and Baghdad signed a bilateral security agreement to secure the shared border under which Iraq pledged to prevent armed groups from launching attacks at neighboring Iran.

Why it matters: At least six known Iranian Kurdish groups are based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), Kurdistan Free Life Party, Kurdistan Freedom Party, Khabat Organization of Iranian Kurdistan, the Komala Reform Faction and the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan.

All six announced the formation of a joint coalition in February, stating their support for democracy in Iran and self-determination for the countries’ Kurdish areas.

The Kurdish parties have accused Iran of launching repeated drone and missile strikes against their positions in Iraq, attacks that escalated following the outbreak of the war between Iran and the US and Israel.

In July, at least 10 people were killed after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired missiles and drones at a base belonging to the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan in Sulaimaniyah province.

That group said in a statement on Saturday that one of its bases in Khalifan, near Erbil, was struck by a drone. No casualties were reported.

Last week, a PDKI camp in Erbil’s Koya district also came under a drone attack.

Know more: Iran, which has designated Kurdish groups as terrorist organizations, intensified a crackdown on Kurdish separatists in Kurdish-majority areas bordering Iraqi Kurdistan, fearing they could join the US-led fight against the regime.

Iranian authorities accuse Kurdish groups of being behind violence against security and IRGC forces in the northwest with the backing of the US and Israel.

In June, two IRGC members were killed after gunmen opened fire at them in the mountains between the cities of Mahabad and Piranshahr. The IRGC said that six armed men it accused of entering the country to carry out “sabotage and terrorist operations” were also killed.

Iran's security forces regularly conduct raids in the area. In late April, the IRGC said it dismantled “Kurdish separatist groups” and “counter-revolutionary” cells in Kermanshah province, arresting 155 individuals it said planned to launch a military attack from the country’s western borders.

The IRGC accused the groups of being supported by the US and Israel.

The Kurds are one of Iran’s largest ethnic minorities, making up around 10% of the country’s population of 93.2 million, according to the Minority Rights Group.

The Kurdish population is concentrated in the northwest, along the borders with northern Iraq and southwest Turkey, and has long faced systematic discrimination and repression at the hands of the Iranian regime.