The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, welcomes Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian at Arbil airport
The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, welcomes Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian at Arbil airport AFP

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived Thursday in Iraqi Kurdistan to meet the autonomous region's leaders, on the second day of a visit aimed at deepening ties with the neighbouring country.

It is Pezeshkian's first foreign trip abroad since he took office in July.

Stepping off his plane in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Pezeshkian was welcomed by regional president Nechirvan Barzani on a red carpet lined with Kurdish Peshmerga forces standing at attention with rifles at their sides.

Pezeshkian held talks with Barzani and Kurdistan's prime minister, Masrour Barzani, before heading to Sulaimaniyah, a city where the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) political party wields influence including in the local security services.

On Wednesday, the first leg of his three-day visit, Pezeshkian announced in Baghdad the signing of more than a dozen agreements to strengthen ties between Iran and Iraq.

His trip comes at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East due to the war in Gaza, which has drawn in Iran-backed armed groups and complicated Iraq's relations with the United States.

Iran's ties with Iraqi Kurdistan have improved in recent months, aided by efforts to neutralise Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, which have long operated in the region.

Tehran in 2022 repeatedly carried out strikes on armed groups in Kurdistan, before Iraq in March 2023 signed a security agreement with Iran. Baghdad committed to disarm these groups and relocate them from border areas to camps.

"We have succeeded... in regulating the security situation in the border areas," Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani said on Wednesday, reiterating Iraq's refusal to allow any acts of aggression to be launched against Iran from its territory.

Iran had accused the Iranian Kurdish opposition of smuggling weapons from Iraq and launching attacks on its security forces.

It also accused these movements of fuelling protests that shook Iran after the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd arrested by the morality police.