The US president says he is “fully supportive” of a Kurdish ground attack on Iran amid reports that the US government is fomenting an insurgency.
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President Donald Trump has expressed public support for a possible Kurdish attack on Iran, as the United States pushes to destabilize the country’s ruling system.
Asked on Thursday about the prospect of a Kurdish insurgency in Iran, the US president told Reuters: “I think it’s great that they want to do that. I’m all for it.”
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Multiple US media outlets reported that President Trump called on leaders of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region to allow Iranian Kurdish groups to launch ground attacks inside Iran.
In his comments Thursday, President Trump declined to say whether the U.S. would provide air support to the Kurdish rebels.
The White House acknowledged that the US president had been in contact with Iraqi Kurdish leaders, but denied that Trump had agreed to a plan to promote an armed uprising by Iran’s Kurds.
“The president has held numerous calls with partners, allies and leaders in the Middle East region,” Caroline Levitt told reporters Wednesday.
“He did speak to Kurdish leaders regarding our bases in northern Iraq.”
U.S. assets in Iraq’s Kurdish region of Erbil have been repeatedly attacked by Iranian drones and missiles since the start of the war.
Iran is home to millions of Kurds, most of whom live in the western part of the country.
Kurds also constitute a sizable minority in Iraq, Syria, and Turkiye.
Earlier this week, Mustafa Hijri, leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), a prominent Kurdish opposition group, called for desertion from the Iranian military and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
“I call on all self-conscious, freedom-seeking soldiers and personnel throughout Iran, and especially in Kurdistan, to abandon the barracks and military centers of the Revolutionary Guards, the military and other regime forces, refuse their assigned missions and return to the embrace of their families,” Hijri wrote in X magazine.
“This action is important both to protect their lives in the face of these attacks and as a sign of turning their backs on regime forces and forces of oppression.”
In recent decades, the U.S. government has encouraged Kurdish groups seeking autonomy to revolt against hostile governments in the region, only to have aid cut off or not come as the political climate changed.
Some critics have warned that stirring up ethnic tensions in Iran could lead to civil war and further destabilize the entire region.
On Wednesday, Iran’s Press TV reported that the Revolutionary Guards fired missiles and drones at the headquarters of an “anti-Iranian terrorist organization in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.”
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) condemned Iranian attacks in the region, but “categorically denied reports that it was involved in attacks against Iran.”
“At the same time, the Kurdistan Regional Government and political parties within it do not participate in any campaign that escalates wars and tensions in the region,” the KRG said in a statement. “On the contrary, we seek peace and stability in the region.”
But the Trump administration is struggling to find significant friendly forces on the ground in Iran, as government forces show no signs of defecting despite thousands of attacks by the United States and Israel.
There have been no significant protests since the war began on Saturday, despite the US president’s repeated calls for Iranians to rise up against their government.
