June 7, 2002 
Michael Rubin 

Officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran are taking contradictory approaches toward Iranian relations with Iraqi Kurdistan. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency on 1 June, Ahmad Torknejad, governor of Iran's Kermanshah province, called for the bolstering of Iranian-Iraqi Kurdistan trade. Speaking before an export-promotion committee, Torknejad said, "By making proper use of its potential, Kermanshah can serve as a transit route to link Sulaymaniyah in Iraq to the Central Asian and the Persian Gulf states." Meanwhile, the 28 May "Brayati" reported that the air link between Duesseldorf, Germany, and Iraqi Kurdistan via the Iranian town of Urumiyeh continues apace. Total travel time between Duesseldorf airport and the Iraqi Kurdistan regional capital of Irbil is 10 hours, including coach service from Urumiyeh via the KDP-controlled border town of Hajji Umran. Medes Air is owned by Iran's former president and current Expediency Council chairman 'Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, according to a report in the 28 May "Wall Street Journal Europe." 

Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic of Iran sent a military delegation to meet Mulla Ali Bapir, leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Group, according to the 30 May "Komal" newspaper. One of the Iranian delegation members was listed as "Commander Foruzandeh." This may refer to Mohammad Foruzandeh, former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and current head of the $12 billion Foundation of the Oppressed and Disabled (Bonyad-i Mostazafan va Janbazan). The Kurdistan Islamic Group is the latest incarnation of 'Ali Bapir's Islamist militia and political party. According to the December 2001 "Middle East Intelligence Bulletin," Bapir broke away from the Islamic Unity Movement in August 2000, because of personal differences with rivals Mullah Abdul Aziz and Mullah Sidiq. As the PUK cracked down on the Iranian and Al-Qaeda-supported Jund al-Islam in September 2001, Ali Bapir became the leader of the more moderate Islamist opposition. While not as militant or radical as the Jund al-Islam (subsequently renamed Ansar al-Islam and then Pistiwanani Islami la Kurdistan), Iranian attempts to co-opt the Kurdistan Islamic Group could spell trouble for Jalal Talebani's secular and pro-Western Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. 

The Islamic Republic has armed and financed radical Islamist groups in recent years, as well as the secular but fiercely anti-Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) (See "RFE/RL Iraq Report," 12 April and 26 April 2002). On 27 May, the PUK's Kurdish-language daily "Hawlati" reported warnings of terrorist attacks in Sulaymaniyah by Pistiwanani Islami la Kurdistan. Officials discovered and diffused a magnetic TNT bomb in the garden of the Shaykh Muhyi al-Din Social and Cultural Center in Sulaymaniyah, according to "Hawlati." 
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