Trump says he’d welcome Kurdish opposition groups launching offensive against Iranian regime

US President Donald Trump says he’d welcome Kurdish opposition groups launching an offensive against the Iranian regime.

“I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” the president said.

When asked if the US would provide or had offered air cover, he responds, “I can’t tell you that,” but adds that the objective for the Kurds would be “to win.”

“If they’re going to do that, that’s good,” Trump adds.

Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States in recent days about whether, and how, to attack Iran’s security forces in the western part of the country, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.

The Iranian Kurdish coalition of groups based on the ‌Iran-Iraq border in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan has been training to mount such an attack in hopes of weakening the country’s military, as the United States and Israel pound Iranian targets with bombs and missiles.

Trump also signals confidence that the major shipping route near Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, will remain open.

Closing the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow chokepoint between Iran and Oman through which a fifth of the world’s ​crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes, has been one of Iran’s main objectives, and shipping through the crucial energy artery has ground to a near ⁠halt after Iranian hits on six vessels.

“They have no navy, you know the navy is now at the bottom of the sea,” Trump says. “I’m watching Hormuz very closely.”