Trump says an Iranian Kurdish attack on Iran would be

Northern Iraq— Seven days into the US-Israel war against Iran, President Trump’s ultimate goal remains vaguely defined. He has said, however, that he wants to “come in and cleanse” the Islamic Republic’s theocratic regime, and on Friday demanded an “unconditional surrender.”

The means by which it hopes to achieve its goals may involve help from some regional partners, who would appreciate American help more than anything. Trump said Thursday that it would be “wonderful” if Iranian Kurds based on the border with Iraq joined the fight with a ground attack against the embattled Iranian regime.

A potential US ally among Iranian Kurdish factions in the region hopes for more than just words of support.

A leader of the lightly armed Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) — representing Iran’s Kurdish ethnic minority, which makes up around 10% of the country’s total population. — He told News themezone that the group is in contact with the US government and hopes to take advantage of the opportunity created by the US-Israel war against Iran to help overthrow the regime.

The crucial question is whether Washington has promised them any material support. Asked directly by News themezone on Thursday at the party’s base in northern Iraq, Amanj Zabtaee — part of the KDPI leadership committee — He said he couldn’t respond because he was “too sensitive.”

“But the reality right now is that both sides have the same goal, and that is the overthrow of the Islamic regime, that’s all I can say now,” Zabtaee said.

“We have the same objective,” he reiterated. “That’s why we can help each other.”

It is unclear whether Zabtaee’s refusal to answer the question was due to some secret US alliance already in place, or whether he was simply hoping that speculation could help secure White House support.

Crucially, the group has not yet received any direct support from the United States, and its fighters could be an easy target if they try to cross the border into Iran without the kind of air support the United States could provide.

However, he has reason to be hopeful.

Trump encouraged the Iranian Kurds to attack Iran in an interview with Reuters on Thursday, saying: “I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that. I would be all for it.”

A precedent for the United States abandoning its Kurdish allies

The Iranian Kurds’ current hopes come despite the fact that the United States, on multiple occasions over the years, has abandoned Kurdish factions across the region after they provided significant battlefield aid.

In the 1970s, Iraqi Kurdish rebels allied with American and Iranian forces against the government in Baghdad, but were isolated by Iran’s former royal ruler, the Shah, after he got Iraq to cede territory. Henry Kissinger, foreign policy advisor to then-President Nixon, said of the abandonment: “Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.”

In the 1990s, then-President George HW Bush encouraged Kurdish and Shiite Muslim groups to rise up against Saddam Hussein in Iraq, but the United States did not help defend those communities when Hussein loyalists massacred tens of thousands of their members.

More recently, the SDF’s Syrian-Kurdish forces became the United States’ primary representative on the ground to help defeat ISIS after years of grueling war in Syria. Trump’s special envoy to Syria, Thomas Barrack, said in January that the anti-ISIS alliance had “largely expired” as the administration backed the new Syrian government. In a matter of weeks, the Kurds lost 80% of the territory they controlled at the beginning of the year. in confrontations with the new government.

Despite the precedent, however, some Iranian Kurdish groups see a potential new alliance with the United States as too good to pass up, after their decades-long quest to overthrow the repressive Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Iranian regime — with its thousands of drones and ballistic missiles, sophisticated intelligence and large armed forces — However, it is a much more powerful enemy than ISIS.

News themezone visited the KDPI base in northern Iraq, about 30 miles from the Iranian border, in January. The group is lightly armed and many of its fighters are young women. Some told us that they fled Iran because women’s rights are not respected there.

On Friday, News themezone visited the camp of another Iranian Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq, the Khabat Organization of Iranian Kurdistan, hours after its members said they were hit by a drone strike. They believe they were attacked directly by Iran or by one of the militia groups Iran supports in Iraq.

Later on Friday, the KDPI base was attacked, but the two missiles and three drones that landed did not kill or injure anyone.

“For 80 years we have been in the fight against current and former dictators. Until now, no country’s air force has defended us and we are still standing,” Zabtaee told News themezone on Thursday. “If something like this [air support] It can happen, it will be great. But if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t mean we’ll be any less committed to our cause.”

“We see the current situation as a great opportunity,” he said. “Now everything is possible. The party could use this opportunity to enter Iran.”