Oct 4, 2017

The passing of former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Oct. 3 was extensively covered by Iranian media, with most newspapers featuring it on their front pages.

With the crisis over the Sept. 25 Kurdistan independence referendum worsening, Iranian media described Talabani’s death as harmful for Iraq’s unity. The media described him as a caring Kurdish politician who always sought to bring peace to his country.

Talabani long enjoyed a cordial relationship with Iranian officials, and many Iranian media outlets emphasized his ties with Iran and his long presence in the country. Under the headline “The peace is sorrowful for Mam [Uncle] Jalal,” the government-run Iran daily wrote Oct. 4, “Talabani lived in exile in the city of Karaj for 25 years, and had a warm relationship with Iran. During the years of the [1980-88] Iran-Iraq War, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan under the leadership of Talabani stood beside Iran and fought against the Baath regime of Iraq.”

Iran daily added, “Talabani was the first president of Iraq who visited Iran after former [Iraqi] President Abdul Rahman Aref’s trip in 1966. He always contemplated Iran as the undeniable power of the region, and stated that ‘Wherever the Kurds are in the world, they are partly [from] an Iranian origin.’ Talabani frequently called Iranians the cousins of Kurds, and knew betrayal of Iran as a betrayal of one’s family.”

Reformist Shargh daily argued Oct. 4 that the former Iraqi president was an advocate of dialogue and negotiation to resolve disputes. “The former president of Iraq spent a great part of his life resolving the differences between Kurds, Arabs and Shiites in Iraq. … While he was striving to decrease the tensions between Erbil and Baghdad, and right after his meeting with [former Iraqi Prime Minister] Nouri al-Maliki, he suffered a stroke.”