There is now a growing consensus that the US-Israeli coalition is supporting a Kurdish uprising in Iran.
On 2 and 3 March, the Israeli army was targeting Iranian military positions in Iranian Kurdistan. In response, the Iranian-backed militia, Kataib Hezbollah, targeted transport and logistics infrastructure in Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) territory, Kurdish and Iranian sources on the ground have said.
According to Ali Mousawi, the Tehran-based editor of IR Diplomacy, the opening of an Iraqi front is now also an emerging consensus. However, the KRG on Thursday flatly denied that it is taking part in efforts to arm or send Kurdish opposition parties into Iranian territory.
CNN reported on Wednesday that the CIA has been working to arm Kurdish forces to foment a popular uprising. The hope for the US and Israel is that the Kurdish nationalist movement will provide the boots on the ground that neither the US nor Israel is willing to commit.
“Israeli planners have been scoping the possibility of encouraging Iranian Kurds, which, in effect, means mainly PJAK, the Iranian arm of the PKK, as an armed force in lieu of US ground troops to incite an uprising inside Iran,” Burcu Ozcelik, senior fellow of the Royal United Services Institute, told Middle East Eye.
