Sunday, 27 September, 2026 , 15:34
FT.com | Additional reporting by Abigail Hauslohner
Iraqi Kurdistan’s prime minister tells FT that departure of American troops leaves them vulnerable to Iranian attack
The looming US withdrawal from Iraq will leave Washington’s Kurdish allies undefended against Iranian attacks, said the prime minister of the country’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, warning that would be a “shameful” outcome.
Nearly all remaining American troops are set to leave Iraq by September 30 as part of President Donald Trump’s pledge to stop the US’s so-called “forever wars”, ending Washington’s military presence 23 years after it invaded Iraq to oust dictator Saddam Hussein.
But Masrour Barzani, whose Kurdistan Regional Government governs Iraq’s Kurdish-majority north, warned that the withdrawal is taking place at a particularly volatile time for the region.
At least 1,000 Iranian drones and missiles have targeted Iraqi Kurdistan since the start of the US war against Iran in February, according to the local government.
While most were aimed at training camps for Iranian Kurdish opposition groups and US military targets, Barzani’s own office in the regional capital Erbil was also attacked in the middle of August.
“The threat is real — we are vulnerable, we are being attacked,” said Barzani, 57, in an interview. “Now, to be left alone without any, let’s say, appropriate defensive system, it’s shameful.”
The state department said the Iraqi security forces “including the Kurdish Peshmerga” have demonstrated “increased capabilities”. The US withdrawal “signals that Iraq and the United States have turned an important page in our bilateral relationship,” it said in a statement.
While the US — whose main military base is attached to Erbil’s airport — has fended off some of the missiles and drones with its sophisticated defences, the KRG has no aerial defences of its own.
Barzani said it cannot procure such aerial defences because these have to be purchased by the federal government in Baghdad.
“When we are prevented from purchasing adequate weapons that are needed against these incoming missiles and drones and sophisticated systems, then of course, we are deliberately becoming vulnerable, becoming weaker,” he said.
Barzani said that further instability, especially at a time when powerful Iraqi Shia militias aligned to Iran are refusing to disarm, could undermine the country’s federal system and ultimately threaten the Kurds’ hard-won autonomy from Baghdad.
He said the region would remain under threat as long as the US-Iran war continued. Iran argues that since “its enemies are in this region, and then this region becomes a legitimate target,” he said. “We are allies of the United States, and we are proud allies of the United States.”
The end of the US military presence is particularly poignant for many Iraqi Kurds, who gained their initial autonomy thanks to a largely US-enforced no-fly zone that had protected them from Saddam’s military starting in 1991.
Under the terms of the withdrawal deal, which was negotiated between Washington and the federal government, the few hundred remaining US military personnel — most based in the KRG — will leave the country as the international coalition to fight Isis winds down its operations.
Only last year, Washington inaugurated an $800mn consulate in Erbil, the largest in the world, which many Kurds had hoped would anchor an ongoing American presence in the region. But the hulking structure looked deserted in recent weeks after the US withdrew non-essential personnel from the region during the hostilities with Iran.
It marked a stark contrast with the busy Iranian consulate nearby, a symbol of Tehran’s deep influence in Iraq.
The state department confirmed that the US had “temporarily relocated staff” from the facility because it had been targeted by Iranian-backed militia groups. It added that the US would “normalise operations” at the consulate “as the security situation allows”.
Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at the London School of Economics, said that the reduced US military presence will leave Barzani with little choice but to reach his own accommodation with Iran.
“The message it sends to long-term US allies in the region is clear: do your own deal with Tehran because Washington cannot be relied upon,” Dodge said.
A key Iranian grievance with Iraqi Kurdistan is the presence of opposition Iranian Kurdish militant groups, some of which have hundreds of fighters and roots going back to the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
“Our talks with Iran have always been very clear, that we are not a threat to them,” he said. “But they’ve always been talking about two things — the presence of coalition forces in Iraq and the presence of Iranian opposition groups in the region.”
In the early days of the war, tensions with Iran erupted over speculation that the militias had been armed and trained by the US and Israel to infiltrate Iran through the porous border.
Barzani brushed off the threat as “frankly exaggerated”, despite the fact that armed Iranian Kurdish militias operate openly in both Erbil and the countryside.
But the prime minister now finds himself caught not only between the US and a belligerent Iran but in a precarious situation at home.
Relations between Erbil and Baghdad have deteriorated over the past decade. Limited freedoms accorded to the semi-autonomous region — which has its own security force, the Peshmerga — have been eroded since Kurds voted for full independence in a 2017 referendum rejected by Baghdad and the international community.
The oil revenues it receives have also declined. Baghdad punished the KRG for the referendum by snatching away the major oil-producing hub of Kirkuk from Kurdish control. The KRG’s sole source of income is now funding from the federal Iraqi budget: the KRG is supposed to receive just under 13 per cent of the budget to run its affairs, including salaries for government officials.
Talks to produce a government also remain deadlocked amid distrust and rivalry between the two major Kurdish parties, nearly two years after an election won by Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party, which is run by his father Masoud.
Barzani warned that the US risks repeating the mistake it made under Barack Obama in 2011, when it withdrew combat troops from the country only to leave a security vacuum that enabled the rise of Isis.
The US then returned in 2014 to lead the anti-Isis coalition, which defeated the extremist group in 2018.
“If the security situation deteriorates, it might call on the international community to come back to this region to assist and stabilise the region,” he said. “But they could do it now — without really waiting for things to get worse before they get better.”
