President Donald Trump's administration is in talks with Iranian Kurdish opposition groups and with Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing military assistance, according to the sources.
Thousands of fighters from Iranian armed groups operate along the Iraq-Iran border, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan. Several of these groups have indicated in public statements since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran that they are planning an imminent attack in Iran and have called on members of the Iranian military to desert, according to CNN. Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been launching strikes on Kurdish groups. On Tuesday, the IRGC said it had attacked the Kurds with dozens of drones.
Trump spoke with Mustafa Hijri, chairman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), on Tuesday, a senior Iranian Kurdish official told CNN. Iranian Kurdish opposition forces plan to engage in a ground operation in western Iran in the coming days, the official said. The KDPI was one of the groups targeted by the IRGC in the attacks.
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"We believe we have a great chance now," the source said of the timing of the planned event. He said the militias expect support from the United States and Israel.
The U.S. president also spoke by phone Sunday with Iraqi Kurdish leaders about U.S. attacks on Iran and how the U.S. could work with the Kurds in the ongoing conflict, two U.S. officials and another source told the Axios website. Any attempt to arm Iranian Kurdish groups would require the support of Iraqi Kurds to allow the transport of weapons and the use of Iraqi Kurdistan as a base of operations. Kurdistan includes areas of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
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The Kurds are supposed to sow chaos according to US ideas
The intent of the coordination, according to a CNN source familiar with the discussions, is for Kurdish armed forces in Iran to clash with and engage Iranian security forces, making it easier for unarmed Iranians in major cities to take to the streets without the protests facing a violent crackdown, as they did in January.
Another U.S. official told CNN that the Kurds would sow chaos in the region and drain Tehran's military resources.
Reuters, which has similar information to CNN, said the CIA, the White House, the Pentagon and the Kurdistan Regional Council did not respond to requests for comment.
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Without weapons, civilians won't take over much, expert says
The United States is clearly trying to jump-start the overthrow of the Iranian regime by arming the Kurds, a historic U.S. ally in the region, according to Alex Plitsas, a CNN national security analyst and Pentagon official during President Barack Obama's administration. "The Iranians as a whole are generally unarmed, and unless the security forces collapse, it will be hard for the population to take control without being armed," Plitsas told CNN.
Any U.S. support for Kurdish groups tasked with helping topple the government in Iran would have to be extensive, according to the sources. According to one source, U.S. intelligence agencies have repeatedly assessed that Iranian Kurds do not now have the influence or resources to support a successful uprising. Kurdish opposition groups are also not united and have a history of mutual tensions, differing ideologies and competing goals.
Israel wants to escalate attacks on Iran
The Israeli military has been attacking Iranian military and police posts along the border with Iraq in recent days, in part to pave the way for a possible redeployment of armed Kurdish forces into northwestern Iran, a source said. Israel is likely to intensify those strikes in the coming days, an Israeli source told CNN.
The current war in the Middle East began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday morning. The attacked country launched a military retaliation shortly afterwards, launching missile and drone strikes on Israel and on US bases and other targets in the Gulf region. In Operation Epic Fury, Iran's supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, among others, was killed.
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Source: A European Perspective, ČTK
Originally published by zem on 4 March 2026 10:54 GMT+1