US officials and regional sources say US President Donald Trump spoke with Kurdish leaders in the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq about deploying Kurdish forces in Iran to help overthrow the regime in Tehran.
Both the US and Israel know that Kurds are fierce fighters, and are the most politically organized and armed segment of Iran’s fragmented and weak opposition. Kurdish women are among the bravest and well-trained female fighters in the Middle East.
If any segment in the Iranian population could help to weaken the regime and ignite a broader uprising against it, it absolutely would be the Kurds. Let’s not forget that Iran’s last uprising in 2023 erupted in Rojhelat (the Kurdish region of Iran) after the regime murdered the young Kurdish-Iranian woman Jina Mahsa Amini. Her killing sparked a nationwide uprising.
In 2025, Trump and Western leaders betrayed the Kurds of Rojava, the Kurdish region in Syria. Today, many Kurds are demanding that their leaders ask Trump, “What is in it for us? Why would we agree to become the ‘boots on the ground?’”
Not long ago, the US and the West asked the Kurds to be the boots on the ground. In June 2014, the Islamic State declared a caliphate, spanning across Iraq and Syria and roughly controlling a third of Syria and 40% of Iraq. The Kurds in Syria and Iraq were to become the primary ground partners for the US-led coalition against ISIS. Our people played a significant role in defeating ISIS. Between 2015 and 2019, 11,000 Kurdish fighters lost their lives in the battle to defeat ISIS.
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the key to Damascus was given to Ahmad al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, a former terrorist who joined al-Qaeda in 2003, cut ties with them in 2016, and went on to establish his own Islamist terrorist organization.
Trump and many Western leaders rolled out the red carpet for Sharaa, whose transnational government in early 2026 launched a major offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to consolidate control over Rojava. The Kurds were betrayed by the US, the Kurds’ main ally. They were abandoned to defend Kurdish cities and towns against the Syrian army, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey, and Qatar.
This time, the asking is big, and it’s a big gamble
The gamble carries massive risks. If the Kurdish offensive and US-Israel war efforts fail to topple the regime. Tehran will, without any doubt, launch a retaliatory attack against the autonomous Kurdistan Region in Iraq, but still, many Kurdish fighter groups, especially in Iran, have been training and waiting for this historic moment to overthrow the regime in Tehran.
Recently, I spoke to Gen. Hussein Yazdanpanah, the commander-in-chief of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), who told me, “We have been fighting against the Islamic Republic for a very long time. We have sacrificed tens of thousands of our people. I myself have lost two brothers and hundreds of my friends. We appreciate that, finally, the US and Israel have entered the line of taking actions towards the Islamic Republic seriously. For us, before even arming us, we need political support. The Kurds need assurance that they will not simply be used as a reactive fighting force, whose sacrifices will go in vain once the battle is over. We need the US and its allies to treat us as equal political partners,” he said, adding, “The future recognition of Iran must not be reproducing a new dictatorship and domination again, against us and other ethnic minorities.”
Iran is a “multinational” state, with the Persians making up about 48% of the population. The Azeri and the Kurds are the biggest ethnic minorities. The Kurds roughly number 15 million and live across the western provinces.
PAK originates from Iranian Kurdistan, but over the years, many of its fighters moved their bases to the Kurdish Region in Iraq because they were frequently targeted by Iranian security apparatus forces.
Gen. Yazdanpanah said that since the US and Israel launched their attack on the Islamic Republic, they have moved their bases, but confirmed that “his fighters have not been deployed to Iran.”
“We have been waiting for this day for decades [the US and Israel launching an attack on Iran]. We want to liberate Kurdish cities and towns from the iron grip of the mullahs. Our fighters are fierce warriors.” The general continued, “We have a limited amount of weaponry and artillery. So far, no outside actor/state has supplied us with weapons. If we had their political and military backing, we would break the Islamic Republic siege on many cities and towns across Iran and not only in Rojhelat.”
The IDF has been conducting precision airstrikes on IRGC bases in Rojhelat. One possible explanation is to break the siege on the Kurdish region. Paving the ground to open a strategic corridor for Kurdish fighter groups to enter Iran through Iraqi Kurdistan and to transfer weapons to those fighters who are already stationed in Rojhelat.
However, establishing a corridor would require the support of Kurdish leaders in the KRG, which they fiercely oppose due to the immense risk it would bring to the only Kurdish-run region. The autonomous Kurdistan Region in Iraq is the pride of every Kurd and has functioned as a safe haven to Kurds from all over historical Kurdistan.
The Kurds should not agree to be treated as a mercenary army for hire. Kurdish leaders in the KRG and Rojhelat should not commit to being the “boots on the ground” before getting proper assurances that legitimate Kurdish political rights will be upheld post regime fall in Iran.
Not long ago, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Western democracies “owe the Kurds a tremendous debt.” Maybe it’s time the West, especially the US, pays that debt before asking the Kurds for another loan!
The writer is a Kurdish-Swedish journalist and researcher on Middle Eastern affairs. She was an Israel-based journalist and podcast presenter for an Arabic and English series, Exposing the Lies – The Voice of Truth from the Middle East, at The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. She previously worked as a field producer and journalist at a number of Qatari media outlets.