Trump says an Iranian Kurdish invasion of Iran would be “good,” but will he help?

Northern Iraq – Seven days into the US-Israel war against Iran, President Trump’s ultimate goal remains unclear. He said, however, that he wants to “go in and clean up” the theocracy of the Islamic Republic, and on Friday he demanded “unconditional surrender.”

The means by which he hopes to achieve his goals may involve assistance from other regional partners, who would be more receptive to US aid. Mr. Trump said on Thursday it would be “great” if the Iranian Kurds based on the Iraqi border joined the war in an attack on the ground of the besieged Iranian regime.

Another potential US ally among Iranian Kurdish groups in the region is hoping for more than just words of support.

Leader of the semi-armed Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) – which represents the Kurdish minority in Iran which comprises about 10% of the country’s population. – told CBS News that the group is in contact with the US government, and hopes to use the opportunity created by the US-Israeli war in Iran to help overthrow the regime.

The key question is whether they have been promised any support from Washington. When asked directly by CBS News on Thursday at the group’s bases in Northern Iraq, Amanj Zabtaee. – part of the KDPI leadership committee – he said he could not answer, because “it is very serious.”

“But the truth at the moment is that both sides have the same goal, and the overthrow of the Islamic State, that’s all I can say now,” Zabtaee said.

“We have the same goal,” he emphasized. “That’s why we can be helpful to each other.”

It is unclear whether Zabtaee’s refusal to answer the question was due to a secret US alliance already in the works, or whether he was hoping that the speculation would help secure White House support.

What’s worse is that the group has yet to receive direct US support, and its fighters could be stranded if they try to cross the border into Iran without the kind of air support the US can provide.

However, he has reason to be optimistic.

Mr. Trump encouraged Iranian Kurds to attack Iran in an interview with Reuters on Thursday, saying: “I think it’s amazing that they would want to do that. I’ll be all for it.”

A prelude to the US leaving the Kurdish allies

The current hopes for the Iranian Kurds come despite the fact that the US, several times over the years, has abandoned Kurdish groups across the region after providing significant battlefield aid.

In the 1970s, Iraqi Kurdish rebels allied with American and Iranian forces against the government in Baghdad, but were cut off by the former Shah of Iran after he forced Iraq to cede territory. Henry Kissinger, then-President Nixon’s foreign policy adviser, said of the abandonment: “Secret action should not be confused with missionary work.”

In the 1990s, then-President George HW Bush encouraged Kurdish and Shiite Muslim groups to rebel against Saddam Hussein in Iraq, but the US did not help protect those communities when Hussein’s loyalists killed tens of thousands of their members.

Recently, the Syrian-Kurdish SDF forces have been the main representative of the US on the ground in helping to defeat ISIS after years of heavy fighting in Syria. The special envoy of Mr. Trump on Syria Thomas Barrack said in January that the coalition against ISIS is now “very outdated,” as the administration supports the new Syrian government. In just a few weeks, the Kurds have lost 80% of the territory they held at the beginning of the year. in conflict with the new government.

Despite this precedent, however, some Iranian Kurdish groups see the new US alliance as too good to pass up, after their decades-long effort to overthrow the repressive Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Iranian Empire – with thousands of drones and missiles, sophisticated intelligence and large armed forces – a much more powerful enemy than ISIS, however.

CBS News visited a KDPI base in northern Iraq, about 30 miles from the Iranian border, in January. This group is poorly armed and most of its fighters are young women. Some told us that they fled Iran because women’s rights are not respected there.

On Friday, CBS News visited the camp of another Iranian Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq, the Khabat Organization of Iranian Kurdistan, hours after its members said they were hit by a drone. They believe they were targeted by Iran directly, or by one of the Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq.

Later on Friday, the KDPI base was attacked, but two missiles and three drones landed without killing or injuring anyone.

“We have been fighting the current and former rulers for 80 years. So far, no country’s air force has protected us, and we are still standing,” Zabtaee told CBS News on Thursday. “If something like this [air support] it is possible, it will be good. But if that doesn’t happen, it doesn’t mean that we will be less serious about our work.”

“We see the current situation as a good opportunity,” he said. “Everything is possible. The group can use this opportunity to enter Iran.”