ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Baghdad is coordinating at a “high level” with Ankara and Tehran to address the issue of the presence of Iranian Kurdish opposition groups and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Iraqi soil, the government said Wednesday, stressing that Iraq will not host armed groups involved in foreign conflicts.

Speaking to state media, government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi highlighted “high coordination with Turkey to resolve the issue of the [PKK] and remove its members from Iraq.”

Founded in 1978, the PKK was initially based in the Kurdish-majority areas of southeastern Turkey before establishing a presence in the Kurdistan Region and the Yazidi-heartland of Sinjar in the Nineveh province.

Since the start of the disarmament process upon the call of the group’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK has gradually begun withdrawing from its positions in the Region, with four positions near the Turkish border evacuated earlier in October.

In September, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said that the PKK-affiliated all-Yazidi Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) will begin handing over their weapons to the state, while eligible members will be integrated into Iraqi security institutions and Sinjar district brought under full federal authority.

The Iraqi government is also coordinating with Iranian authorities through a high-level committee to “resolve the issue of the presence of Iranian Kurdish militants inside Iraqi territory, specifically in the Kurdistan Region,” Aboudi said.

Several camps belonging to the Iranian Kurdish opposition groups are located in the Kurdistan Region, which house the group’s fighters, political figures, and their families. The groups have been repeatedly targeted by Iranian forces, resulting in hundreds of casualties.

Authorities in the Kurdistan Region have continuously maintained their neutrality in the recent regional conflict, denouncing any attacks on neighboring countries.

Iraq “will not adopt and embrace any armed group participating in a particular conflict,” the spokesperson said, adding that the Iraqi government “will not allow the threat to neighboring countries to originate from its territory.”

On Tuesday, Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq Mohammed Kazem Al-e Sadeq said Baghdad has agreed to expel Iranian Kurdish “separatist” groups from the Kurdistan Region and hand them over to Tehran. 

No representatives from Erbil were present at the meeting where the agreement was discussed, according to the Kurdistan Region's interior minister.