The White House said U.S. President Donald Trump contacted Kurdish leaders after the strike on Iran.
On the 4th (local time), White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing, "He actually spoke with Kurdish leaders regarding our base in northern Iraq."
At the same time, responding to media reports that the United States made such contact to support Kurdish armed groups to overthrow Iran's regime, Spokesperson Leavitt denied it, saying, "That is not true at all."
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported the previous day that on the 1st Trump contacted Kurdish leaders but had not made a final decision on whether to provide weapons, military training, and intelligence support to these armed groups.
The Kurds are an Iranic mountain people dispersed across Türkiye, Iran, and Iraq. They are attempting to establish a nation-state and, unlike Iran's Shia Muslims, are known to be mostly Sunni Muslims.
Asked whether the United States is considering deploying ground troops to Iran, Spokesperson Leavitt said, "That is not part of the operational plan at this time," but added, "President Trump will not take (military) options that are on the table off the table."
On the war now in its fifth day, she said, "U.S. forces have struck more than 2,000 targets and destroyed hundreds of ballistic missiles, launchers, and drones," adding, "We expect to secure absolute and complete control over Iranian airspace within hours."
Asked whether attacking Iran over its pursuit of nuclear weapons affects the U.S. posture toward North Korea, she said, "There is no change in our position regarding North Korea."
Meanwhile, responding to criticism that even within the U.S. administration the reasons for the preemptive strike on Iran are mixed, Spokesperson Leavitt pushed back, saying, "It was not a decision made in a vacuum."
Spokesperson Leavitt stressed, "The (order) was issued based on the president's judgment that Iran would attack the United States and our assets in the region."
This appears to reflect awareness of criticism that Trump's remarks emphasizing an "imminent threat" to the United States as the pretext for the strike conflict with Secretary of State Marco Rubio's remarks citing "preparations for retaliation for Israel's attack on Iran."
Separately, Spokesperson Leavitt also said that Spain, which had been critical of the strike on Iran, "agreed to cooperate with U.S. forces," adding, "My understanding is that U.S. forces are coordinating with their Spanish counterparts."
However, the Spanish government flatly refuted the remarks, saying, "There is absolutely no change in our position on base use, the war in the Middle East, or the bombing of Iran."