Erbil to Tehran: Containment or mutual relations
Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani traveled to Tehran, the capital city of Iran, upon an official invitation of President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Unlike Turkey, Iran officially recognizes the Kurdistan Regional Government and has a consulate in Erbil, the capital city of Kurdistan Region.
There are a number of crucial issues that are on the agenda between the two presidents, including the strategic agreement that is negotiated between Iraq and the U.S.; the activities of PJAK (the Free Life Party in Kurdistan) in Iran and their military camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, and the status of the arrested Iranian officials in Erbil by the U.S. last year.
Iran is aware of the strategic importance of any strategic agreement between Iraq and the U.S. with its possible implications on Iran. Despite the fact that the agreement has yet to be finalized and signed between the two sides, Iran fears that its influence in Iraq would be diminished and the soil of Iraq may be used as a launch pad by the U.S. in a possible military confrontation with Iran. Kurdistan Region has a lengthy border with Iranian Kurdistan and the position of the KRG in the eventuality of a U.S.-Iran military conflict would be decisive not only due to Kurdistan's border with Iranian Kurdistan but also due to the fact that the KRG and political Kurdish parties have considerable leverage over the Kurds in Iran. Iran has long relations with Iraqi Kurds, but perhaps the bitterest memory of Iraqi Kurds with Iran is the infamous Algeria agreement between Iran and Iraq in 1975, which brought disaster to the Kurdish national movement in Iraqi Kurdistan led by legendary Kurdish national leader Mustafa Barzani, the father of Massoud Barzani.
Iran, unlike other neighboring countries of the KRG, has a kind of mild but cunning policy toward Iraqi Kurdistan and its own Kurdish community. Iran has never denied the existence of the Kurdish identity and a small region within Iranian Kurdistan officially called Kurdistan, whereas use of "Kurdistan" still is taboo in Turkey. Iran, however, has not been too happy to see full-fledged Kurdish nationalism either in Iraqi, Turkish, or Iranian Kurdistan. The difference between Iran and Turkey with respect to their approach to the Kurdish national movement is that Iran mostly resorts to containment policy whereas Turkey aims to destroy it from its root...
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