Arm the Kurds?!

[Wilson23]

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/03/politics/cia-arming-kurds-iran
CIA working to arm Kurdish forces to spark uprising in Iran, sources say
Washington and Erbil, Iraq
—
The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN.

The Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing them with military support, the sources said.

Iranian Kurdish armed groups have thousands of forces operating along the Iraq-Iran border, primarily in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Several of the groups have released public statements since the beginning of the war hinting at imminent action and urging Iranian military forces to defect. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been striking Kurdish groups and said on Tuesday that it targeted Kurdish forces with dozens of drones.

The CIA support for Iranian Kurdish groups began several months before the war, one of the sources and a senior Kurdistan Regional Government official said.


Look, guys, you haven't thought this through. A Kurdish uprising in Iran would give the Kurds in TURKEY ideas, and our Turkish allies would not like that at all.

 

[Wilson23]

And then there's the Kurds in Iraq and Syria. Many share the dream of a united and independent Kurdistan, which cannot happen without taking away territory from recognized sovereign states.

 

[Wilson23]

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/08/kurdish-no-fly-zone-00818314
Kurdish leader links potential Iran ground push to US-enforced no-fly zone
A senior figure in Iran’s Kurdish opposition has tied any potential ground incursion into Iran to a major U.S. military decision: the establishment of a no-fly zone over Kurdish areas in western Iran. This was necessary “so that the Islamic Republic cannot attack from the air and use its military superiority,” Reza Kaabi said in an interview in Erbil with WELT, which is — as is POLITICO — part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network.

Kaabi is the secretary-general of the Komala of the Toilers of Kurdistan, an armed Iranian Kurdish party based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The party maintains its own Peshmerga units and is among the Kurdish groups that could provide ground troops in the event of an escalation.

 

[nowisthetime]

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/03/politics/cia-arming-kurds-iran
CIA working to arm Kurdish forces to spark uprising in Iran, sources say
Washington and Erbil, Iraq
—
The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN.

The Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing them with military support, the sources said.

Iranian Kurdish armed groups have thousands of forces operating along the Iraq-Iran border, primarily in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Several of the groups have released public statements since the beginning of the war hinting at imminent action and urging Iranian military forces to defect. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been striking Kurdish groups and said on Tuesday that it targeted Kurdish forces with dozens of drones.

The CIA support for Iranian Kurdish groups began several months before the war, one of the sources and a senior Kurdistan Regional Government official said.


Look, guys, you haven't thought this through. A Kurdish uprising in Iran would give the Kurds in TURKEY ideas, and our Turkish allies would not like that at all.

This seems to not have been thought through which is typical with this administration. Reports say the CIA has been discussing arming Kurdish groups to help spark an uprising in Iran. That might sound strategic on paper, but the regional consequences are obvious.

I feel a Kurdish uprising in Iran wouldn’t stay contained. It would inevitably energize Kurdish movements across the border, especially in Turkey, and Turkey is a NATO ally that is extremely sensitive about Kurdish separatism. The Turkish government has spent decades fighting Kurdish insurgent groups. If Kurdish forces in Iran start gaining momentum with outside backing, it’s almost guaranteed to create serious tensions with Ankara.

On top of that, a lot of experienced people have been pushed out of the CIA and other intelligence agencies, which weakens institutional knowledge and strategic judgment at a time when careful diplomacy and intelligence work matter most.

This is exactly the kind of situation where unintended consequences can spiral quickly if policymakers aren’t thinking several moves ahead.

 

[Wilson23]

A Turk once told me the PKK, the Kurdish nationalist party in Turkey, is really just a drug cartel these days. It controls the heroin trade between Afghanistan and Europe.

Which means it has all the financial RESOURCES of a drug cartel, and can use those for political purposes whenever it wishes.

 

[nowisthetime]

I feel like that’s actually part of why people worry about the regional effects. If groups like the PKK have access to major funding streams from trafficking networks, that gives them resources and staying power. So if Kurdish movements gain momentum in Iran, it’s not hard to see why Turkey would be concerned it could energize Kurdish groups across the border, given its long conflict with the PKK.

 

[Wilson23]

I feel like that’s actually part of why people worry about the regional effects. If groups like the PKK have access to major funding streams from trafficking networks, that gives them resources and staying power. So if Kurdish movements gain momentum in Iran, it’s not hard to see why Turkey would be concerned it could energize Kurdish groups across the border, given its long conflict with the PKK.

You'd think the CIA would have considered that -- it's not like there's anything THEY don't know about the drug trade.

 

[nowisthetime]

You'd think the CIA would have considered that -- it's not like there's anything THEY don't know about the drug trade.

Right? But intelligence agencies don’t always get every second- and third-order consequence right.

 

[Wilson23]

Right? But intelligence agencies don’t always get every second- and third-order consequence right.

Doesn't matter if they're COOL!

 

[Wilson23]

https://thewire.in/world/interview-...-seek-political-guarantees-before-joining-war
Interview: Iranian Kurdish Leader Says Kurds Seek Political Guarantees Before Joining War
New Delhi: A senior leader of one of Iran’s main armed Kurdish opposition groups said his organisation already has forces positioned inside Iranian Kurdistan and is preparing for “any scenario”, even as US President Donald Trump has sent mixed signals about mobilising Kurdish fighters against Tehran before appearing to step back from the idea amid Turkish opposition.

Fuad Beritan, a member of the leadership council of the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), told The Wire in a written interview from an undisclosed location that Kurdish organisations were less focused on the military dimensions of the conflict than on securing guarantees for Kurdish rights in any future political transformation in Iran.

 

[Wilson23]

Until the Kurds have an independent state, they are always going to be a PROBLEM for Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.