Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan Region (KRG) in northern Iraq, said the semi-autonomous area does not want to be drawn into the regional conflict sparked by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, while backing Baghdad's efforts to bring weapons under state control.
"No side is pressuring us to join the fight, and we do not want to be a party to any conflict in the region," Barzani told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview on Saturday.
He said the region's infrastructure has been severely damaged by more than 1,000 missile and drone attacks since hostilities broke out on February 28, launched either directly from Iran or from within Iraq through militia groups. He called these attacks "unjustified" and stressed that "all issues must be resolved through peaceful means" and dialogue.
In March, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired five missiles at al-Harir airbase near Erbil, the regional capital, calling it a "command headquarters of the invading American army." Barzani said the base had been empty for nearly a decade, with no U.S. troops stationed there since the U.S.-led coalition defeated ISIL (ISIS) and dismantled the territory the group controlled. He added that U.S. soldiers remain in Erbil to "fight terrorism" and that their facilities have been attacked multiple times.
Barzani also said the KRG supports the Iraqi government's efforts to ensure that weapons are held only by official forces. In a speech to parliament in May, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi pledged that the state would hold a monopoly on arms in a country where many paramilitary groups have operated since the 2003 U.S.-led war. The government has set a September 30 deadline for all armed groups to disarm and hand over their weapons to the state.
Additionally, Barzani told Al Jazeera that the regional administration has no relations with Israel, while ties with Syria and Turkey are deepening on the basis of "bilateral cooperation." KRG President Nechirvan Barzani met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus earlier this week, marking the first visit to Syria by a Kurdish leader from Iraq since President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024.
Iranian Kurdish opposition parties have been on high alert since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began. Their bases in Iraq's Kurdish semi-autonomous region—and inside Iranian territory—have been pushed to the frontline of the conflict, with speculation rife about the possibility of Iranian Kurdish fighters joining the fight to topple the Iranian government. Both U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel have suggested that arming these fighters could shift the balance of power inside Iran, where Kurds make up about 10% of the population.
