Sulaimania/Baghdad: A senior Iranian military commander repeatedly warned Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq to withdraw from the oil city of Kirkuk or face an onslaught by Iraqi forces and allied Iranian-backed fighters, Kurdish officials briefed on the meetings said.
Major-General Qasim Sulaimani, commander of foreign operations for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, travelled to Iraq’s Kurdistan region to meet Kurdish leaders at least three times this month before the Baghdad government’s lightning campaign to recapture territory across the north.
The presence of Sulaimani on the frontlines highlights Tehran’s heavy sway over policy in Iraq.
Sulaimani met leaders from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main Kurdish political parties in northern Iraq, in the city of Sulaimania the day before Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi ordered his forces to advance on Kirkuk, according to a PUK lawmaker briefed on the meeting.
Sulaimani’s message was clear: withdraw or risk losing Tehran as a strategic ally.
“[Al] Abadi has all the regional powers and the West behind him and nothing will stop him from forcing you to return back to the mountains if he decides so,” the lawmaker quoted Sulaimani as telling the PUK leadership.
The Iranian general evoked late Iraqi president Saddam Hussain’s ruthless suppression of a Kurdish rebellion in 1991, when almost the entire Kurdish population fled northern Iraq to the mountains, the PUK lawmaker said.
“Sulaimani’s visit ... was to give a last-minute chance for the decision-makers not to commit a fatal mistake,” said the lawmaker, who like others interviewed in this story declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Commanders of the Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as the Peshmerga, have accused Iran of orchestrating the Iraqi central government’s push into areas under their control, a charge senior Iranian officials have denied.
But Iran has made no secret of its presence in Iraq.
“Tehran’s military help is not a secret anymore. You can find General Sulaimani’s pictures in Iraq everywhere,” said an official close to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
“Now, beside political issues, Kirkuk’s oil is a very key element for Iran, which is an Opec member. Control of those oil fields by Iran’s enemies would be disastrous for us. Why should we let them enter the oil market?.”
The PUK, a close ally of Iran, accused its rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), of putting the Kurds at risk of military intervention and isolation by pushing hard for the referendum last month, which won wide approval for independence.
Sulaimani has been allied to the PUK for years, but the referendum has drawn him even closer to Kurdish politics and expanded Iran’s reach in Iraq beyond the Baghdad government.
The Iranian general is no stranger to conflicts in Iraq, which fought an eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s. He has often been seen in footage from the frontlines, and Iran has long helped Baghdad to carry out its military strategy through paramilitary Shiite militias, which it funds and arms.
Before the referendum, Sulaimani suggested to Kurdish leaders that holding a vote on secession — which Iran feared would encourage its own Kurdish population to agitate for greater autonomy — would be risky.
“The Iranians were very clear. They have been very clear that there will be conflict, that these territories will be lost,” said one prominent Iraqi Kurdish politician who met Sulaimani ahead of the September 25 referendum.
On October 6, barely a week after the vote, Sulaimani attended the funeral of PUK leader Jalal Talabani. Again, he wanted to make sure even his closest Kurdish allies understood the dangers of not withdrawing from Kirkuk, officials said.
A senior Iranian diplomat in Iraq and an official in Iran close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office said Sulaimani met with Kurdish leaders after Talabani’s funeral and urged them to withdraw from Kirkuk and in exchange Tehran would protect their interests.
Sulaimani met with one of Talabani’s sons, Bafel, a few days after his father was buried, one of the PUK officials said.
“Sulaimani said [Al] Abadi should be taken very seriously. You should understand this,” the official said.
An Iranian source in Iraq said Sulaimani was in Kirkuk two nights before the Iraqi government offensive for “a couple of hours to give military guidance.” Iraqi intelligence sources said Tehran sent a clear signal to the PUK.
“We understand from our sources on the ground that neighbouring Iran played a decisive role in making the PUK choose the right course with Baghdad,” one Iraqi intelligence official told Reuters.
Tensions over the referendum and Kirkuk have deepened divisions between the two main political parties in northern Iraq. The KDP accused the PUK of betraying the Kurdish cause by capitulating to Iran and striking a deal to withdraw.
“The Talabani clan were behind the offensive on Kirkuk. They asked Qasim [Sulaimani] for help and his troops were there on the ground,” said a source close to Masoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government and head of the KDP.
“It is becoming clear that Iran is directing the operations to destroy the KDP.”
The PUK strongly denies this. Talabani’s son Bafel accused the KDP of missing a zero-hour chance to avoid losing Kirkuk by failing to reach a deal over a military base, which Iraqi government forces had demanded to take back.
“Unfortunately we reacted too slowly. And we find ourselves where we are today,” Bafel told Reuters.
Two other Kurdish political sources gave a similar account.
Iran and Sulaimani offered early assistance to northern Iraq’s Kurds in the fight against Daesh, a rallying point for the Kurdish community. But after the devastating loss of Kirkuk, Iraqi Kurds have been left disillusioned.
“They [both PUK and KDP leaders] just make decisions on their own and play with people’s lives. In the end, we pay the price,” said pensioner Abdullah Ahmad in Sulaimania.
“This is a disaster for everyone. Everyone was united against Daesh. Now they are back just looking out for themselves.”
