Washington, D.C., US – US President Donald Trump has talked to several Kurdish leaders in Iraq in the past days to discuss the war against Iran.
Trump talked to Bafel Talabani, the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Iraq, the party said on Tuesday.
It said Trump told Talabani about his further plans regarding the war with Iran.
Trump spoke on Tuesday with the president of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), Mustafa Hijri, according to US broadcaster CNN.
The US news website Axios reported that Trump also spoke with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Sunday.
Reaching out to Kurdish leaders
There is much conjecture about why Trump is reaching out to Kurdish leaders in Iraq,
The Wall Street Journal says that Trump is considering supporting them in a fight against Iran’s leadership.
US broadcaster CNN goes a step further. It says that the CIA, the country’s foreign intelligence service, is working to arm Kurdish forces, citing multiple unnamed sources.
Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdistan region shares a border to Iran. Several Iranian Kurdish opposition groups are also based in Kurdistan.
Kurdish militias, already an important ally of the US in the fight against the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, have thousands of battle-hardened fighters in the region.
Iran has also been targeting Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
DW
