U.S. President Donald Trump said he does not want the Kurds to get involved in a U.S.-led military operation against Iran. Trump's position is a 180-degree reversal from his earlier stance, when he said he was "totally in favor" of the Kurds possibly attacking Iran.
On the 7th (local time), Trump spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Florida after attending a dignified transfer ceremony for fallen U.S. service members at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and made the remarks. "We don't want the Kurds involved," Trump said. "Even without the Kurds' involvement, the war is complicated enough."
"I don't want to see Kurds hurt or killed," Trump said. "We have maintained a good relationship." He also conveyed that the Kurds had indicated a willingness to enter northwestern Iran and spark an anti-government uprising, but said he rejected it, saying "I don't want that."
The Kurds are an Iranic mountain people dispersed across Türkiye, Iran, and Iraq. Since the 3rd century B.C., they have preserved their own language and way of life across the Middle East. They are seeking to found a nation-state, and unlike Iran's Shiite Muslims, most Kurds are known to be Sunni Muslims.