LONDON | President Trump said over the weekend he doesn’t want the well-armed militias of the Kurds — the northern Iran and Iraq ethnic group that has often aligned itself with the U.S. in the past — to join the fight against the regime in Tehran.
But the Kurds, who have their own longstanding grievances against Iran’s ruling clerics, may not be waiting for permission.
Several Kurdish factions appear poised to move ahead with their own plans to take the fight to Tehran as Iran continues to launch missile and drone attacks on Kurdish groups in neighboring Iraq.
Iran has directed at least 196 attacks against the Kurdish region of Iraq since the war began less than two weeks ago, targeting Kurdish camps and American personnel and facilities in the area with suicide drones, ballistic missiles and rockets, according to reports.
“Among these attacks, 43 targeted the headquarters of Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region, and 58 were against the U.S. Consulate General in Erbil and military bases and headquarters related to the U.S. government,” the Community Peacemaker Teams, an international aid group, said in a statement on its website.
Mr. Trump said he has ruled out backing an Iranian Kurdish ground offensive with U.S. airpower, telling reporters on Saturday he does not want Kurdish fighters “hurt and killed.”
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Mr. Trump said he had personally ruled out the plan, despite earlier Kurdish indications of willingness to participate.
“I have ruled it out. I don’t want the Kurds going in. I don’t want to see the Kurds get hurt and killed,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ve had a good relationship, they’re willing to go in, but I’ve told them I don’t want them to go in.”
Two days earlier, the president had seemed more willing to back Kurdish plans to join the war. “I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it.”
Kurdish officials who spoke to The Washington Times said Mr, Trump’s ambivalence may be strategic — he may want to keep the Iranians guessing.
“Trump’s new comments could be a deception, it could be his new policy,” said Kako Alayar, who is the chief of staff of the Iranian Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan. “I don’t believe many people know his policy, and this unpredictability keeps the Iranian regime guessing. … Until now, Trump has always done what he said.”
Komala bases in Iraqi Kurdistan have also been targeted by Iranian drones and missiles, according to Mr. Alayar.
He said one such strike killed a Komala fighter and wounded two others on Sunday morning.
Mr. Alayar declined to say the extent to which his group had been in contact or had coordinated with the United States government since the conflict began.
But CNN has reported that Kurdish groups have been receiving assistance from the CIA.
Mr. Alayar said the joint Israeli-American air campaign has focused heavily on targeting regime infrastructure in Kurdish majority regions of Iran — bombings, he said, that will make it easier for the thousands of Kurdish fighters in Iraq to invade Iran.
The Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan was formed on Feb. 22 to pool the military resources of Iranian-Kurdish refugee groups. On Wednesday, Komala became the group’s sixth member.
“The Feb. 22 joint press conference in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, projected an image of unity among the coalition members. However, practically speaking, they are a long way from being capable of acting together,” said Norman Ricklefs, a former senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and now chairman of NAMEA Group.
In addition to Komala, the group includes the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, the Kurdistan Freedom Party, the Kurdistan Free Life Party, the Organization of Iranian Kurdistan Struggle and Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan.
Not all Iranian opposition groups are happy about the increased interest in the Iranian Kurds.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Iranian monarch, took to social media to criticize the Kurds for historical ties to both slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and former Iranian strongman Saddam Hussein.
“In recent days, several separatist groups — some of whose records include collaboration with both Khomeini and Saddam — have made baseless and contemptible claims against the territorial integrity and national unity of Iran,” Mr. Pahlavi wrote in a post on X following the announcement of the Coalition of Political Forces.
Other Iranian opposition groups hold views more supportive of Kurdish aspirations. The People’s Mujahedin, or MEK, has supported autonomy and cultural rights for Kurds in a post-Islamic republic Iran.
“Kurds are excluded from the highest levels of power in Iran,” said Abdulla Pashew, a famed Kurdish poet and commentator on Kurdish affairs.
“The Kurdish language is not officially recognized, children are denied education in their mother tongue and Kurdish is often barred even in administrative settings. Political parties are banned, and the reach of state terror has extended far beyond Iran’s borders,” he said, referencing Islamic Republic attacks launched at Kurdish dissidents living in other countries.
In an interview with The Times, he said that for the first time since the Iran-Iraq War, regime collapse due to hostile action seems plausible. Many in the Kurdish diaspora see this as a turning point in their decades-long struggle against Tehran. Kurds make up at least 10% of Iran’s population or about 10 million people.
“For decades, Kurdish and American forces have worked in close coordination, and that relationship reached its height in the war against ISIS,” Mr. Pashew said.
The poet is considered by some Kurds to be the predominantly Sunni Muslim ethnic group’s greatest living author.
In one of his poems, he writes that he imagined “Kurdistan as a soccer field, independence as a ball.”
For now, Iranian Kurdish factions appear ready to test how far they can push their campaign against Tehran — even if Washington officially chooses to remain on the sidelines.
