Kurds Do Not ‘Trust’ US To Use Them As Proxy Force Against Iran

This should be obvious to any observer of Middle East history and US foreign policy over the last half-century, but a new Axios report cited Kurdish officials who say they don’t ‘trust’ the United States, especially in wake of recent reports suggesting the Kurds will be used as proxy ground forces against Iran. 

Iraq’s Kurds have already made clear they oppose joining the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and warn they could face severe Iranian retaliation without ground or air defense support, Axios reported Saturday.

An earlier CNN report claimed the CIA began working to arm Kurdish forces hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran after the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury.

Initially, President Trump openly voiced support for Kurdish involvement in the conflict but then soon reversed that position on Saturday.

“The Kurds must not be the tip of the spear in this conflict,” Axios reported, citing a senior official from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which is the semi-autonomous region in northeastern Iraq.

The Iraqi Kurds are “staying neutral” because “there is no clarity” on whether Washington seeks full regime change in Iran or only a “change in personnel” – the KRG official said. Trump has stated the United States will be involved in deciding who leads Iran in the future but has not explained how that would really work in the end. The war objectives have seemed to shift rapidly, especially when it comes to daily public facing White House interactions with reporters.

Some military analysts and Middle East pundits online recently attempted to count the number of times the Kurds were effectively “thrown under the bus” in their total history of working with Washington, and concluded that it’s been at least nine times.

The last ‘betrayal’ was merely months ago – when the Pentagon quickly withdrew from northern Syria and simply told the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to become integrated into the Syrian state and army. The only thing is the Jolani/Sharaa government and its HTS militants hate the Kurds.

The SDF had long battled against the Sunni hardliners now ruling from Damascus at this point. The US also regularly failed to step in over years of Turkish aerial bombardment of both Syrian and Iraqi Kurds.

As for the idea of some kind of proxy Kurdish invasion force to use against Iran – some see the idea as being destined for failure, given an Iranian nation of 90+ million with a powerful IRGC ruling military structure would likely feel it as merely a pinprick. It’s anything but certain that it would actually have an impact on leaders in Tehran. Instead, blowback would fall hardest on Kurdish communities across the region, and Shia militias in Iraq might get involved on the other side as well.

Currently, many Kurdish leaders are outraged that US officials ‘leaked’ the arm the Kurds plan, given it effectively puts a big target on every Iranian Kurds’ back in eyes of military leadership in Tehran.