Iraq’s National Security Advisor announced on Wednesday that Kurdish forces in the Kurdistan region have strengthened security along the Iranian border to prevent any infiltration or attacks originating from Iraqi territory.

The Kurdistan region has increasingly been drawn into the Middle East conflict, with drone strikes threatening U.S. bases and Iran accused of targeting Kurdish-Iranian fighters. The region hosts camps and rear bases of several Iranian Kurdish groups, which Tehran has long alleged are aligned with Western or Israeli interests.

During a phone call with Iranian official Ali Bagheri, National Security Advisor Qassem al-Araji conveyed Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s directive that no group may “infiltrate into Iran and carry out terrorist acts from Iraqi territory.” Araji added that Kurdish authorities had dispatched “security reinforcements to the border strip to fully tighten control over” the area near Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region.

He emphasized that Sudani ordered strict adherence to the 2023 Iraq-Iran security agreement, which obliges both nations to safeguard their shared borders. As part of that deal, Iraq and Iran had previously agreed to disarm Kurdish-Iranian fighters and relocate them away from frontier zones.

Tensions remain high: since Tuesday, two Iranian Kurdish groups accused Tehran of striking their positions inside the Kurdistan region. Last month, five groups declared a political coalition, vowing “the struggle to overthrow the Islamic Republic of Iran, and to achieve self-determination for the Kurds.”

On Wednesday, Mustafa Hijri, Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), urged Iranian soldiers and security forces, particularly in Kurdistan, to desert their posts, intensifying the political and military standoff.