Externalizing Iran’s Internal Crisis: IRGC, Protesters, and Kurdish Separatists

Armed separatist Kurdish groups were not behind the protests that broke out following Mahsa Amini’s September 2022 death, although they tried to take advantage of the unrest. However, from the onset of the anti-regime protests, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its allies in Iran’s state-censored media sought to attribute the protests to Kurdish separatists. IRGC artillery even targeted bases of Iranian Kurdish separatists in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. In doing so, the IRGC hoped to deter the nationalist opposition to the Islamic Republic – those who do not subscribe to the Islamist ideology of the state but are committed to the territorial integrity of Iran – from participating in anti-regime protests. As the anniversary of Amini’s killing nears, IRGC media and outlets close to the IRGC are once again trying to externalize Iran’s domestic problems. This is evident in uniform texts appearing in different media outlets warning the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to disarm Iranian Kurdish separatists based in Iraq.

• September 9: Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, the IRGC’s chief of operations, in a lengthy interview with IRGC mouthpiece Tasnim News, said that after losing hope in the possibility of invading or otherwise attacking Iran, the United States opted to support anti-regime protests. Turning to Iraq’s Kurdistan region and Kurdish separatists based in Iraq, he said: “We have brotherly expectations for our brothers in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Providing a sanctuary to terrorists in the region has made the region the source of operations against our country. This is neither consistent with the logic of brotherhood nor with good neighborly relations. After continuous negotiations, we finally signed an agreement with the central government in Iraq and the Kurdistan region” on disarming Iranian Kurdish militants, “the deadline for which is September 19 … We are committed to all elements of the agreement, neither more nor less, and we are expecting the counterpart to remain committed to it just as the Islamic Republic has. Otherwise, the clock will turn back, and we will feel compelled to guard the interests of the Iranian nation.”
• September 10: In the editorial “Countdown to Endgame,” Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting mouthpiece Jam-e Jam cited Nilforoushan’s comments on Iraq’s Kurdistan region and concluded: “Unfortunately, in the course of the past year’s security chaos,” referencing the 2022 anti-regime protests, “Iraqi Kurdistan region authorities sacrificed their own security and the security of neighboring countries for the sake of their relations with the Zionist regime. This is why positions of the separatist Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan were targeted by missiles and aerial drones of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. At the time, Iran declared that should Iraqi Kurdistan region authorities continue their support for separatist movements, missile and aerial drone attacks would continue until the terrorists were disarmed.”
• September 11: Regional Khorasan newspaper’s editorial demanded Iraq “dismantle terrorist camps at the border” and reprinted verbatim Jam-e Jam’s warning of further strikes if Kurdish groups aren’t disarmed, suggesting the articles are part of an IRGC strategic communications campaign directed at the KRG.
• September 11: Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanani, commenting on Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Bafel Talabani’s September 11 meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran, said, as quoted by IRGC mouthpiece Fars News: “The visit took place within the framework of positive dialogue and bilateral cooperation between Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan region.” Kanani said the visit was “in no way related to haggling about the” September 19 deadline for the Iraqi government to disarm Iranian Kurdish militants based in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. He continued: “The Iraqi government has committed itself to disarming armed terrorist separatist groups based on Iraqi territory and in the Kurdistan region by September 19. Under this agreement, the military bases of these groups must be evacuated and the groups be relocated to camps under the supervision of the Iraqi government.”

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