The Trump administration is preparing for potential US personnel casualties as it discusses the option of deploying ground troops to Iran. Against this backdrop, Washington has begun establishing ties with internal Iranian opposition groups, hoping to utilize them as allies in organizing a popular uprising against the current regime.
Hvylya reports this, quoting the Washington Post.
During recent talks with Kurdish minority leaders in Iran and Iraq, Donald Trump promised insurgents large-scale air support. According to informed sources, the goal is for opposition forces to seize territories in western Iran. A high-ranking representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) confirmed that the American side is asking Iraqi Kurds to provide logistics and not interfere with the movement of armed groups across the border.
In a Sunday call to PUK leader Bafel Talabani, Trump issued a stark ultimatum: the Kurds must decide whose side they are on—the United States and Israel, or Iran. This information was also confirmed by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), though they noted that the operation's success depends less on the power of armed units and more on the actual level of support within Iranian society itself.
Trump also contacted Mustafa Hijri, head of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan. This organization recently joined a new anti-government coalition and has already called on Iranian security forces to desert. However, for Iraqi Kurds, who have maintained neutrality for years to preserve peace with Tehran, participation in this venture threatens catastrophic consequences should the US-Israeli campaign fail.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed Trump's communication with Kurdish leadership but denied rumors of CIA weapons supplies, calling them inaccurate. Meanwhile, Tehran has already responded to news of the forming opposition coalition by launching preemptive strikes against targets in Iraqi Kurdistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism.
The situation is further complicated by the Kurds' historical distrust of Washington, which has repeatedly left them without support at decisive moments, as seen recently in Syria. Furthermore, experts point to weak coordination between various Iranian opposition groups and the risk that a Kurdish uprising might trigger ethnic conflict without gaining traction in other parts of the country.
While American forces strike strategic targets in southern Iran, Israel is methodically destroying military infrastructure and security forces specifically within Iranian Kurdistan. This appears to be a deliberate strategy to prepare a bridgehead for a ground offensive. Iraqi Kurds, caught between a rock and a hard place, admit they cannot ignore Trump's direct demands but seriously fear retaliation from Iran, which is already shelling their capital, Erbil.