Trump offers US backing, including aircover, to Iranian Kurdish groups if they go on offensive — report

US President Donald Trump offered “extensive US aircover” and other forms of support for Iranian Kurdish opposition groups this week, The Washington Post reports, citing multiple people familiar with the effort

Trump spoke this week to Kurdish leaders in Iran and in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the report says.

“The American request to the Iraqi Kurds is to open the way and not obstruct” Iranian Kurdish groups inside Iraq,” says a senior Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) official, “while also providing logistical support.” The PUK is one of the two major Iraqi Kurdish parties, and is generally seen as closer to Iran and more distant from Israel than its rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

The senior official says that Trump was “clear” in his Sunday conversation with Bafel Talabani, leader of the PUK. “He told us the Kurds must choose a side in this battle — either with America and Israel or with Iran.”

Trump also called KDP head Masoud Barzani. A senior official from his party tells The Washington Post that Trump offered a similar message to Barzani, but adds that “it’s not about who has more active armed militias” to cross into Iran, “it’s about who has more support from inside” the country.

Iranian and Iraqi Kurds are in a difficult situation. The US has backed Kurds in Iraq and Syria, but has also repeatedly prioritized the interests of more powerful state adversaries of the Kurds. Iraq’s Kurds have reached an uneasy modus vivendi with Iran, based on the sides not backing attacks on the other.

Iran’s Kurds would also face reprisals from the regime if it survives.

There were premature reports in Israeli and American media about the start of an Iranian Kurdish offensive last night that were later taken down.

“We are in a very delicate position,” says the senior PUK official. “If this ground offensive fails, we do not know what Iran’s reaction against the Kurdistan region of Iraq would be. At the same time, we cannot simply reject Trump’s request — especially when he personally calls and asks for it.”