According to Taştekin, Trump’s position went beyond rhetoric. Fehim Taştekin said Trump’s conversations with Iraqi and Iranian Kurdish figures included offers of air support and broader protection if they moved to seize areas in western Iran. Taştekin argued that this was the clearest indication yet that Washington was willing to treat Kurdish groups not as political stakeholders but as instruments in a military design against Iran.
The pressure, however, appears to come with a stark political message. In a YouTube broadcast, Taştekin said Kurdish leaders were effectively being told, “Either you are with us or with Iran,” describing a coercive choice that places the Kurdistan Region of Iraq in a severe diplomatic and security bind. The demand is especially sensitive because refusing Washington risks damaging ties with the United States, while accepting such a role could trigger direct retaliation from Tehran.
Iran has already signaled that it will not wait passively. Taştekin stresses that Tehran has launched preventive strikes against camps and headquarters linked to some Kurdish groups near its western border, while warning regional Kurdish leaders against tolerating separatist activity. In Taştekin’s assessment, if the Kurdistan Region were turned into a corridor or operational hub for attacks on Iran, cities such as Erbil and Sulaymaniyah could quickly become targets of military reprisals.
The risks do not end with Iran. Taştekin warns that Kurdish involvement in such a war could also bring the Kurdistan Region into confrontation with Iraq’s central government and Iran-aligned Hashd al-Shaabi factions. That would raise the possibility of a new and deeply unpredictable internal Iraqi conflict, adding another volatile front to an already fragile regional balance.
Historical memory also weighs heavily on Kurdish calculations. Across Kurdish political circles, there is a longstanding fear that outside powers encourage uprisings when convenient and abandon Kurdish partners when circumstances change. In the same discussion, Taştekin pointed to these anxieties and to the broader debate among Kurds over whether they are again being drawn into a conflict that serves others’ strategic objectives more than their own national interests.
This debate has grown sharper as Trump continues to frame regional alignments in transactional terms. Taştekin also noted that the Washington Post has kept a tally of Trump’s false or misleading claims and recorded 30,573 such claims during his presidency, a figure often cited by critics to question the reliability of his declarations and promises.
For Kurdish groups, the core question is no longer simply whether they can benefit from U.S. backing. It is whether becoming a ground force in a confrontation with Iran would expose them to retaliation, isolation and another cycle of strategic abandonment. As the regional war expands, the Kurdish issue is again becoming a central arena in a much larger power struggle.
Photo: Perplexity