To avoid an Iranian ground invasion, learn about the Iranian Kurdish opposition, which Iraq announce

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[size=52]To avoid an Iranian ground invasion, learn about the Iranian Kurdish opposition, which Iraq announced was expelling it from the border[/size]

[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein announced today, Tuesday (September 12, 2023), that Iraq has begun removing armed groups from the Iranian Kurdish opposition from the border areas with Iran, stressing that he will go to Tehran to defend the measures taken by his country and avoid a new escalation.[/size]
[size=45]Last year, Tehran bombed more than once the sites of Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, accusing them of participating in the protest movement that shook Iran following the death of Iranian Kurdish Mahsa Amini on September 16 of last year, after she was arrested by the morality police.[/size]
[size=45]Last March, the two countries concluded an “agreement on security.” Tehran demands that Iraq “disarm” the Iranian Kurdish opposition groups by September 19, and evacuate their headquarters to transfer them to camps, under penalty of retaliation.[/size]
[size=45]In response to a question about this issue during a press conference, the Foreign Minister said, “These groups have been present in Iraqi Kurdistan for about 4 or 5 decades.”[/size]
[size=45]Hussein said, “The necessary measures were taken to remove these groups from the border areas, and they were housed in remote camps deep inside Iraq and deep in Kurdistan.”[/size]
[size=45]Without referring to the disarmament of these groups, Hussein confirmed that the Iraqi side “has begun implementing the agreement between the two parties,” adding that “we will carry this message with us” during his visit to Tehran, tomorrow, Wednesday.[/size]
[size=45]Hussein said, “We expect the Iranian side not to use violence against Iraqi Kurdistan, and thus against Iraq’s sovereignty.”[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out that the discussions with the Iranian side relate to “the clear Iraqi policy... of not allowing these groups, which are opposition groups, to cross the border and use weapons against the Iranian government,” but also “we are discussing with the Iranian side not to threaten to use violence or not to threaten to bomb some areas in Iraqi Kurdistan.” “.[/size]
[size=45]Hussein's statements came during his meeting with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg, in Baghdad.[/size]
[size=45]In recent months, senior Iranian officials have called on Iraq to implement its obligations regarding the Iranian opposition file.[/size]
[size=45]Earlier today, Navid Mihravar, a leader in the Iranian opposition “Komeh Leh” Party (Party of the Toilers of Kurdistan), spoke to Agence France-Presse, saying, “The local authorities have allocated a camp in the Balisan region in Iraqi Kurdistan, to house the fighters who are being transferred from Mount Halkurd.” .[/size]
[size=45]“We are currently withdrawing our forces to that camp,” Mihrawar said.[/size]
[size=45]So far, the Kurdistan Regional Government has not commented on the issue of implementing these measures, although several meetings were held between officials in the region and Iranian officials.[/size]
[size=45]In late August, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, “The date of September 19 will not be extended in any way.”[/size]
[size=45]The Iranian opposition in the Kurdistan region:
Several Iranian opposition parties operate in the region, all of them Kurdish nationalism, and belonging to regions of Iranian Kurdistan, such as Kurdistan Province, Kermanshah, and Ilam Province.[/size]
[size=45]Iranian Kurdish dissidents immigrated to Iraq to escape the repression practiced by the authorities there. Despite their belonging to one nationality, they have multiple political backgrounds, and many of these parties carry leftist ideas.[/size]
[size=45]Among those parties are: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (Hadak), the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Dawa and Reform Group, the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAC), the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PGAC), the Khabat Party, and Komala.[/size]
[size=45]The Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)
The Kurdistan Party (Parti Jiyani Azadi) or (PJAK), as it is widely known, demands the secession of the Iranian Kurdistan regions and the establishment of a Kurdish state. Its struggle with power began in 2004 when its fighters launched attacks in the Iranian Kurdistan province.[/size]
[size=45]The conflict between the two parties escalated until 2011, when a ceasefire was declared and Tehran declared victory over the party.[/size]
[size=45]But clashes returned in subsequent years, and according to the New York Times, party fighters launched cross-border attacks until at least 2017.[/size]
[size=45]The party carries leftist ideas, and has a close connection to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, according to the American authorities. Like the Workers' Party, PJAC is listed on the US Treasury Department's lists of terrorist movements.[/size]
[size=45]The exact number of party fighters is not known, but they are estimated at several thousand. The New York Times, citing party leaders and Iranian officials, says that PJAK members are carrying out operations inside Iran, and years ago they shot down an Iranian helicopter on the border between Iraq and Iran.[/size]
[size=45]Komala
(Komla Shor Shani Iranian Kurdistan) The Komla Kurdistan Party is the Kurdish branch of the Iranian Communist Party (Iran's Kommonist Party), and is a member of the tripartite alliance forming this party.[/size]
[size=45]The party's name (Komla) means community in the Kurdish language, and its founding dates back about fifty years, according to the United Nations.[/size]
[size=45]The party embraces communist ideas, despite its organizational dispute with the ancient Iranian communist Tudeh Party.[/size]
[size=45]The New York Times quotes the group's leaders as saying that they have about 1,000 fighters in Iraq, but they deny incursions into Iranian territory.[/size]
[size=45]The party lost a number of its members during the Iranian bombing operations, at the end of last year, on its headquarters in Iraqi territory.[/size]
[size=45]Another UN report says the party poses only a limited threat to Iranian security forces while “posing no threat at all to the Iranian state itself.”[/size]
[size=45]Kurdistan Democratic Party (Hadak)
The party carries left-wing, socialist ideas, and was in the past part of the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party.[/size]
[size=45]This party is among the most affected by the Iranian attacks since last September, in which 11 people were killed at its bases near the Iraqi Kurdish city of Koya, according to party officials and medical officials, who spoke to the New York Times.[/size]
[size=45]The party's general secretary is Mustafa Mouloudi, who took charge since 2017, succeeding Khaled Azizi.[/size]
[size=45]The party split from the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party in 2006 as a result of a leadership dispute, and the United Nations says the party “does not have a real influence” on the masses in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
, according to the United Nations, was founded in the 1950s. It carries left-wing socialist ideas and is part of the “Socialist International.”[/size]
[size=45]In 2016, the party announced the resumption of “armed resistance” against Iran, and carried out a major operation against the “Basij” forces (affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard) in the Majid Khan area.[/size]
[size=45]Kurdistan Freedom Party
in Kurdish, Parti Ezadi Kurdistan.[/size]
[size=45]The Kurdistan Freedom Party has an armed organization called “Kurdistan Freedom Eagles,” which calls for the federalization of Iran and granting the Kurds rights and autonomy over their regions.[/size]
[size=45]The party's military wing is led by Hussein Yazdan Banna, and his fighters participated in the struggle against ISIS, according to the Narratively website, which conducted interviews with a number of party members and leaders in 2016.[/size]
[size=45]The website says that the party's fighters coordinated with the American army, which was fighting within the international coalition to fight ISIS.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Banna received great attention from the media at the time when he accused Iran of being responsible for training and preparing ISIS fighters.[/size]
[size=45]Nine of the party's fighters were killed in the Iranian bombing last September on their positions in the region.[/size]
[size=45]The party has an unknown number of fighters stationed in the Kurdistan region.[/size]
[size=45]Khabat Party (The Struggle)
The party, which carries Islamic fundamentalist ideas, was founded in the 1980s, and was originally named “The National and Islamic Struggle Organization of Iranian Kurdistan,” before it changed its name to the Khabat Revolutionary Organization of Iranian Kurdistan.[/size]
[size=45]The party was founded against the backdrop of the Iranian authorities’ repression of the Kurdish regions following the victory of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and it is considered among the few Iranian Kurdish parties that call for the establishment of an Islamic regime.[/size]
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