IDF seeks to open path for Kurdish forces into northwest Iran - report

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he supports the idea of Kurdish militias launching an offensive against the Iranian regime, as the regional conflict involving Iran, the United States, and Israel continues to intensify.

In an interview with Reuters, Trump expressed approval of a possible uprising by Iranian Kurdish groups against authorities in Tehran. “I think it’s great that they want to do that, I’m absolutely in favor of it,” the U.S. president said, though he did not specify whether Washington would provide direct military or logistical support.

The remarks come as Israel’s military is reportedly working to create conditions that could allow Kurdish forces to establish positions in northwestern Iran, a development that has raised concerns in neighboring Turkey and Iraq.

Airstrikes have recently targeted Iranian military and law enforcement sites in Kurdish-populated areas near northern Iraq. According to Bloomberg News, the Israel Defense Forces is seeking to weaken Iranian control in the region and create a security environment that could encourage Kurdish armed groups to challenge the Iranian government.

Speculation about possible U.S. support for Kurdish groups has circulated in recent days, but the White House has pushed back against such reports. Presidential spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that claims Trump had approved a plan to arm Kurdish militias were “completely false.” She confirmed, however, that the president had recently communicated with Kurdish officials regarding the American military presence in northern Iraq.

Iranian authorities have acknowledged the presence of Kurdish opposition groups operating from the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The ideological military force of the Islamic Republic, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has long accused these groups of organizing cross-border operations.

Meanwhile, Kurdish political figures say clashes may already be underway. An official from the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan told i24NEWS that fighters from the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) began taking combat positions inside Iranian territory on March 2. According to the official, Iranian forces withdrew from the border city of Mariwan the following day and established defensive positions in surrounding areas.

Iran has warned it will not tolerate separatist movements. Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran had already conducted strikes against Kurdish targets in Iraq and insisted that Iranian armed forces “have full control of the situation.”

The developments come as the broader war continues to weaken the Iranian government and fuel speculation about potential unrest in peripheral regions, particularly among ethnic minorities that have long opposed the central authorities in Tehran.