The United States and Israel are seeking to foment an armed uprising inside Iran using an armed Kurdish fighting force, which has been built up since the twelve-day war in 2025.
ITV News understands that since last year, weapons have been smuggled into Western Iran to arm thousands of Kurdish volunteers. They are expected to begin a ground operation within days.
In recent days, American and Israeli strikes have repeatedly struck security targets in the West of the country to degrade their capabilities and give the best chance for the ground rebellion.
We have been told by Kurdish sources that American and Israeli forces have been asked to provide air cover when any such ground operation begins. Our sources do not know if that request has been approved.
In recent days Iran has increased its bombing of Kurdish rebel areas.
This weekend, President Trump has spoken to Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish leaders based in Northern Iraq.
It is likely those conversations raised the issue of a ground rebellion, no one involved in the calls have spoken about them.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary confirmed the President had spoken many regional partners. US officials told the Wall Street Journal that President Trump was considering requests to provide support.
At the weekend he also shared a Washington Post opinion article which suggested that there is no need for US forces to mount a ground operation as the Iranian people will be “the boots on the ground”.
A successful uprising may well be wishful thinking however, given how Iran has fortified its military presence around the Kurdish areas and would crack down hard on any attempt to rebel.
There are around ten million Kurds within Iran, and thousands have passed through training in the mountains over many years.
Whilst there may be a greater willingness to support from Iranian Kurdish leaders, it is likely there will be huge caution from Iraqi Kurdish leaders given the Iranian response on other nations which have supported the war so far.
Furthermore, the Kurds have been used by the United States in the past and then abandoned. The Kurds were critical to the fight against ISIS only to find the USA walked away from the support they had expected once that war was won.
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