Kurdistan Region President Visits Tehran to Calm Tensions

The President of the Kurdistan region visited Tehran in a bid to calm tensions between the government and the flashpoint area.

The relationship between Kurdistan and Tehran has been marked by conflict sparked by Iran's military actions against Kurdish exile groups and accusations of Kurds harboring Israeli Mossad agents.

An escalation occurred in January when Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted a location in Kurdistan, alleging it was a Mossad base.

The IRGC missiles hit a civilian house in Erbil belonging to Peshraw Dizayee, killing him and 4 members of his family. Dizayee was a business mogul and head of Falcon Investment Group. Following the raid, IRNA, the Iranian state news agency, released a report that accused Dizayee of collaborating with Israel.

The president of the region, Nechirvan Barzani, arrived in Tehran on Sunday. Accompanied by a delegation of senior officials, including Interior Minister Reber Ahmed, President Barzani is scheduled to meet with Iran's leaders including President Ebrahim Raisi, and Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

The trip marks Barzani's first visit to Iran since attending President Raisi’s inauguration ceremony in 2021.