Trump Presses Kurdish Leaders to Back U.S. Push Against Iran, Sparking Tensions

President Donald Trump pressed Kurdish leaders in Iraq and Iran this week to support U.S. efforts to weaken Tehran, reportedly dangling “extensive U.S. aircover” and other backing for any Kurdish move against Iran as the U.S.-Israeli air campaign entered its second week washingtonpost +1. The outreach triggered alarm in Tehran and Baghdad, fresh Iranian strikes on Kurdish positions near the border, and a public denial from the White House that Washington had endorsed plans for a Kurdish insurgency inside Iran washingtonpost +1.

Trump spoke by phone with Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Bafel Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Iraq, and Mustafa Hijri, leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), urging them to “choose a side” in the conflict and raising the prospect of U.S. support for operations in western Iran, according to multiple U.S. and Kurdish officials washingtonpost +1. The calls came as reports surfaced that the CIA has been quietly arming Iranian Kurdish groups for months in a bid to prepare them for possible action against Tehran cnn +1.

How Trump’s Kurdish Gamble Could Open a New Front Against Iran

Accounts from U.S. and regional officials suggest the administration sees Kurdish fighters as a potential ground force to complement airstrikes on Iranian leadership and military infrastructure that began on February 28 axios +1. The Washington Post and other outlets reported that Trump offered opposition groups in Iraqi Kurdistan not only air support but broader logistical help should they move to seize territory in western Iran, an area with significant Kurdish populations washingtonpost +2.

Iranian Kurdish factions based in northern Iraq, some of which already field thousands of armed fighters, have been weighing whether to participate in a cross-border offensive, with at least one report claiming “thousands” of Kurdish forces had begun operations, though those accounts remained contested by officials in the region agenzianova +1. Analysts say such a move could stretch Iranian security forces and spur internal unrest but warn it would also make Iraqi Kurdistan a frontline in the war. “Instinctively, it feels like a bad move,” said Neil Quilliam of Chatham House, warning of blowback and long-term instability if the U.S. leans on militias to reshape Iran’s political landscape facebook.

Border Tensions, Regional Pushback and Fears of Another Kurdish ‘Betrayal’

Tehran has already responded militarily, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announcing missile and drone strikes on what it called “separatist terrorist” bases of groups such as Komala in Iraqi Kurdistan, claiming to have hit headquarters and training camps along the border timesofisrael. Iraqi National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji stated that Baghdad “will not allow” its territory to be used for attacks on Iran, while Kurdish regional authorities quietly reinforced their side of the frontier with Peshmerga units amid fears of further Iranian retaliation washingtonpost +1.

Turkey, which has long opposed any empowerment of Kurdish armed movements because of its own war with the PKK, faces what one Turkish outlet described as an “impossible position” if Washington arms Iranian Kurds along its borders atlanticcouncil. Within Iraqi Kurdistan, officials voiced deep unease, citing past U.S. withdrawals from Kurdish partners in Iraq and Syria: one senior regional figure told CNN the situation was “very dangerous” but added, “we cannot stand against America” under direct presidential pressure cnn +1. At home, the White House insisted reports of an agreed Kurdish insurgency plan were “completely false,” and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stressed that U.S. goals were “not premised on the support of the arming of any particular force,” even as think tanks and lawmakers warned of expanding war powers and a slide into proxy conflict nytimes +2.

The Bigger Picture

The push to enlist Kurdish groups against Tehran highlighted how quickly the U.S.-Iran conflict risked spilling across borders, drawing in non-state actors with their own longstanding grievances and aspirations. With Iran striking Kurdish targets in Iraq, Iraqi leaders rejecting cross-border raids, Turkey on edge, and Kurdish factions divided between opportunity and existential risk, any move to turn western Iran into a Kurdish front could transform a bilateral confrontation into a multi-sided regional war washingtonpost +2. Whether Trump’s offers result in a full-fledged Kurdish offensive or remain a pressure tactic, the episode underlined both the tactical allure—and the historical dangers—of relying on Kurdish militias to reshape the Middle East’s strategic map.