The US has reportedly offered the Iranian Kurds “extensive air cover” to aid them in taking over portions of Western Iran to form a buffer zone between the Islamic Republic and Israel.
By providing military support through the CIA to leaders of the country’s ten million-strong Kurdish population, Washington hopes that the path will be opened for the Islamic regime to be completely toppled, according to the Washington Post.
In calls earlier this week to these leaders in Iran and neighbouring Iraq, US President Donald Trump offered “extensive US air cover” as well as other military backing, the report added.
Already, a coalition of six anti-regime Kurdish groups has been formed, with the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) saying on Wednesday it has urged “all [Iranian] soldiers and personnel... especially in Kurdistan” to abandon their bases and withdraw their support from “the regime’s armed and repressive forces”.
Iran’s Kurdish community has several militias, made up of thousands of troops, operating on the border between the Islamic Republic and Iraq, where they are effectively exiled.
Since the US strikes began, they have come under intense bombardment from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
One senior Iranian Kurdish official reportedly told CNN that his faction and others like it is expecting to form part of a ground offensive in western Iran “in the coming days”. The official said they believe they have a “big chance” to topple the ayatollahs.
Iraq’s Kurdish forces are also likely to play a key role, with their territory need as a staging ground for attacks. However, their support is far from guaranteed, with them having long maintained a non-aggression agreement with Tehran.
A senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said: “The American request to the Iraqi Kurds is to open the way and not obstruct Iranian Kurdish groups mobilising in Iraq, while also providing logistical support.”
PUK leader Bafel Talabani added: “Trump was clear in his call. He told us the Kurds must choose a side in this battle - either with America and Israel or with Iran.”
CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas suggested that the US “is clearly trying to jump-start” the process of regime change, adding: “The Iranian people are generally unarmed as a whole, and unless the security services collapse, it’ll be difficult for them to take over unless someone arms them.”
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