Tehran threatened on Friday to target “all the facilities” of the Kurdistan region in Iraq if militants were allowed to enter Iran.
“So far only the bases of the United States and Israel and separatist groups in the region have been targeted,” the state-linked Mehr news agency reported, quoting a letter by Iran’s defense council.
It warned that if “the continued presence, plotting and entry” of militants into Iran is allowed, “all facilities of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq … will be widely targeted.”
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he would approve of an offensive by Iranian Kurdish fighters into Iran in support of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
“I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
When asked if the US would provide or had offered air cover, he responded, “I can’t tell you that,” but added that the objective for the Kurds would be “to win.”
“If they’re going to do that, that’s good,” Trump added.
Iranian Kurdish militias have consulted with the United States in recent days about whether, and how, to attack Iran’s security forces in the western part of the country, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The Iranian Kurdish coalition of groups based on the Iran-Iraq border in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan has been training to mount such an attack in hopes of weakening the country’s military, as the United States and Israel pound Iranian targets with bombs and missiles.
Since the United States and Israel launched the war on Saturday, Iran has been striking Iranian Kurdish groups based in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan whom Tehran accuses of serving Western and Israeli interests.
While Kurds have historically had less friction with the Iranian state than their brethren in Iraq, Turkey and Syria, Iranian Kurds form some of Iran’s rare armed and organized opposition groups.
Experts say they could potentially help special forces infiltrate and destabilize Iran.
