CIA working to arm Kurds to attack Iran – media

The US and Israel require “boots on the ground,” reports have stated

The CIA is working on arming Kurdish forces hostile to the Iranian government to support the US-Israeli regime-change war against Tehran, CNN has reported.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have called for a popular uprising after launching strikes against Iranian leaders and state institutions last Saturday.

Funneling weapons to Iranian Kurds will require cooperation from their Iraqi counterparts, CNN reported on Tuesday, citing multiple people familiar with the plan and a decades-long history of Iraqi Kurdish factions working with the US spy agency. Axios reported Trump spoke to Kurdish leaders in Iraq on Sunday about how they could support the war effort.

Middle East experts predicted Washington would try to use Kurdish armed groups as ‘boots on the ground’ in Iran, similar to their previous role in Syria. But the US would need to balance empowering Kurds with possible resistance from NATO member Türkiye, which views foreign Kurdish forces as extensions of its own Kurdish separatists, who have fought a decades-long guerrilla war against Ankara.

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An estimated 30 to 45 million Kurds live across Iran, Iraq, Türkiye, and Syria, many aspiring to nationhood. Iraqi Kurdistan has broad autonomy, while Syrian Kurds were recently forced to cede territory and government functions to Damascus. The previous government of Syrian President Bashar Assad was toppled by Türkiye-allied militants in late 2024.

Ankara has repeatedly denounced Israel for alleged genocidal tactics against Palestinians in Gaza. At a February event in the US, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett branded Türkiye “the next Iran” threatening Israel.

The US and Israel claim their attack on Iran is necessary to prevent it from acquiring nuclear capability – an ambition Tehran denies. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently warned that Washington and West Jerusalem’s unlawful approach will spur more nations to consider nuclear deterrence.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned last month that if the Middle East enters a nuclear arms race, his nation would be forced to participate.

READ MORE: Lavrov issues nuclear warning after US-Israeli attacks on Iran

The US has also backed non-Kurdish militants in Iran, including the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), a now-exiled leftist organization that sided with Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.