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Trump Seeks Kurdish Allies Against Tehran, but Analysts Say Plan Is Risky, Could Take Years

On 5 March 2026, Debbie Weiss reported in The Algemeiner, Trump Seeks Kurdish Allies Against Tehran, but Analysts Say Plan Is Risky, Could Take Years. The opening says the Trump administration was weighing whether the war with Iran might eventually require U.S. troops on the ground. It says Washington had begun reaching out to Kurdish opposition leaders inside Iran with an offer of "extensive US aircover," and was looking for ways to destabilize the government in Tehran, while the American-Israeli campaign went on. Kurds are a people who live across several borders, including western Iran and northern Iraq. Air cover means American warplanes protecting fighters on the ground. An American family should care because the sentence puts U.S. soldiers on the list of things being weighed, and U.S. pilots in the offer Weiss describes. Weighing a step is not taking it.

Background for a new reader. The United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February 2026; Washington calls its part Operation Epic Fury. Through March the argument in Washington was whether to add ground troops, meaning American soldiers physically inside Iran, to what had been an air and sea war. Israeli outlets, writing in Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, French and English, followed that argument closely and often passed on American reports to their readers. This page is one of those reports.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. Weiss attributes the calls with Kurdish leaders to The Washington Post and people familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump would not tell Reuters whether the United States would provide air cover. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. objectives are not premised on arming any particular force. This page did not open the Post or the Reuters interview.

What the article says

Weiss writes that, according to The Washington Post, Trump held calls with Kurdish leaders in Iraq, including Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani, and with anti-regime Iranian Kurdish groups, about taking control of areas in western Iran. A senior official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, speaking without a name, told that paper Washington had asked Iraqi Kurdish authorities to open the way, not obstruct Iranian Kurdish groups mobilizing in Iraq, and provide logistical support. The same official said: "He told us the Kurds must choose a side in this battle — either with America and Israel or with Iran."

Trump, Weiss writes, told Reuters he would be "all for" Iranian Kurdish forces going on the offensive. His words, as the article quotes them: "I think it's wonderful that they want to do that; I'd be all for it." Asked if the United States would provide air cover, he said, "I can't tell you that," and said their objective would be "to win."

Hegseth spoke to reporters the day before the article. Weiss quotes him directly.

None of our objectives are premised on the support or the arming of any particular force.

Pete Hegseth, U.S. defense secretary, as The Algemeiner quoted him on 5 March 2026. He added that Washington was aware of what other groups might be doing, but that U.S. objectives were not centered on that.

The article says accounts diverged that Wednesday night over whether an Iranian Kurdish ground push had already begun. Fox News said Kurdish militias based in Iraq had crossed into Iran. Tasnim, an Iranian outlet, said through Reuters that its journalists in three border provinces found no incursion. Weiss writes that Israeli journalist Barak Ravid first cited a U.S. official confirming an operation, then called the reports conflicting, and that a senior official in one Iranian Kurdish faction also denied an offensive was underway.

Peshawar Hawramani, a spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, denied the charge. Weiss quotes him calling allegations that the region was part of a plan to arm and send Kurdish opposition parties into Iranian territory "completely unfounded" and "malicious."

Weiss writes that CNN had reported a day earlier that the CIA had been working for months with Iranian Kurdish groups to foment an uprising. That is CNN's report, as she retells it, not a document printed on this page.

Seth Frantzman, a regional analyst, told The Algemeiner that advising, assisting, or arming such groups takes time. He pointed to the U.S.-backed Kurdish campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria, which he said took more than four years and cost about 11,000 fighters killed. He said any comparable effort inside Iran, a country of about 90 million people, would be harder, and that Kurdish factions would want to know the support would last.

What other reporting and posts add

• The Kurdish denial, in a Kurdish official's words. Mario Nawfal, 5 March 2026, citing the Times of Israel and Fox: "Kurdistan's Deputy Chief of Staff fired back immediately: "Not a single Iraqi Kurd has crossed the border. This is patently false."" The official is not named in the post. Nawfal on X. (capture: twitter/t49__v578.md)
• The White House, as a summary. A 4 March 2026 roundup: "White House (Karoline Leavitt) denied any approved plan to arm Kurds, calling such reports "completely false."" That is a poster's summary, not the White House transcript. Post. (capture: twitter/t49__v578.md)
• What came of it. By September 2026, an AI reply identified a recirculated clip as "a Fox News clip from the Will Cain Show on March 4, 2026, covering early reports of a Kurdish ground push into Iran," and said "Those reports were disputed by Kurdish leaders at the time and no sustained offensive followed." Reply. (capture: twitter/t55__v657.md)
• A later claim, unsourced. A Facebook reel quoted in the captures says "A joint plan for a Kurdish invasion of Iran collapsed after it leaked to media." No document came with it. Treat it as a lead. (capture: twitter/t13__v156.md)

What it shows

In the war's first week, the administration reached out to Kurdish groups to open a ground front inside Iran under American air cover, according to the reports this article summarizes. That was the first attempt to find someone else's boots for the ground component that bombing could not supply. Analysts quoted here said it could take years; within weeks, the plans being drawn up were for American soldiers (Pentagon Ground Plans 2026).

Check it yourself

Trump Seeks Kurdish Allies Against Tehran, but Analysts Say Plan Is Risky, Could Take Years, Debbie Weiss, The Algemeiner, 5 March 2026. The Washington Post, Reuters, CNN, and Fox News reports mentioned in the article were not opened for this page.

Status: Donald Trump is alive. Pete Hegseth is alive.

Research captures: twitter/t49__v578.md, twitter/t55__v657.md, twitter/t13__v156.md, twitter/t49__v585.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26