President Trump on Monday again accused Kurdish groups of keeping weapons the US wanted to send into Iran to foment an uprising against the Iranian government.
“The people [of Iran] are watching it, they want to go out on the streets, but they have no weapons, they have no guns. We thought the Kurds were going to give [them] weapons, but the Kurds disappointed us. The Kurds take, take, take,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“So I’m very disappointed in the Kurds. I said it wasn’t going to work, by the way. I disagreed with what they did… we sent some guns with ammunition, and they were supposed to be delivered but they kept it. I said they were going to keep it, but what do I know?” the president added.
Trump first made the accusation against the Kurds early last month when he said the US sent “a lot of guns” to protesters in Iran in January, but that he thought the Kurds kept them. Several Iranian Kurdish groups have strongly denied the US president’s claims.
During the unrest in Iran in January, Iranian authorities said they seized US-made weapons and ammunition from foreign-backed “militants” and frequently said their forces were fighting against US and Israeli-backed “terrorist groups.” There were also armed clashes between Kurdish groups and Iranian security forces, with Reuters reporting at the time that Kurdish fighters had been entering Iran through Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Kurdistan Freedom Party, or PAK, a Kurdish Iranian separatist group mainly based in Iraq, was announcing operations against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the IRGC had also reported clashes with armed Kurds. The US also reportedly smuggled Starlink terminals into Iran through Iraqi Kurdistan.
The US was also eyeing backing a Kurdish offensive during the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, but the plan never came together. According to Israeli media, the plan fell apart due to a series of leaks to the media and mistrust of the US and Israel among Kurdish factions.
