On Sunday, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s media office stated that the recently published Financial Times article does not reflect the remarks by Prime Minister Barzani, and that the Prime Minister’s position is that leaving the Kurdistan Region without adequate air defense makes the region vulnerable.

“The Kurdistan Region has suffered more than 1,000 attacks by drone, rocket, and missile from Iran and militias within Iraq since February 28,” the KRG Prime Minister’s office said. “The article’s headline and interpretation do not reflect what he said in the interview.”

The KRG Prime Minister’s office also stated that there is “no evidence that Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups ‘operate openly’ in the Kurdistan Region and the article provides none,” adding that there is a security agreement signed in 2023 between Erbil, Baghdad, and Tehran, “which the Iranian-Kurdish groups inside the Kurdistan Region are mindful of.

“We have raised the inaccuracies with the Financial Times and asked it to amend the article so that it reflects the Prime Minister’s words and the facts on the ground,” the media office said.

In the interview, Prime Minister Barzani said that “the threat is real — we are vulnerable, we are being attacked.

“Now, to be left alone without any, let’s say, appropriate defensive system, it’s shameful.”

Prime Minister Barzani also said it cannot procure such aerial defenses 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 concluded.