US President Donald Trump has admitted that the United States covertly supplied weapons to Iranian protesters through Kurdish intermediaries weeks before launching military strikes on Iran, even as American diplomats were engaged in talks with Tehran. Speaking to Fox News, Trump said the arms “never reached their intended recipients” and suggested that Kurdish groups may have retained the weapons.
The disclosure confirms reports that the CIA had been exploring ways to arm Iranian Kurdish forces, while Trump previously expressed support for cross-border operations by these groups. In an earlier statement on 5 March, he said it would be “wonderful” if Kurdish forces in Iraq crossed into Iran to attack the government, though he later backtracked, citing concerns about complicating the conflict.
The revelation comes amid the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran, which began on 28 February, shortly after large-scale protests erupted across the country over economic hardship linked to US sanctions. Trump claimed that Iranian authorities killed more than “40,000 civilians” during the demonstrations, though there is no independent verification of the figure.
Human rights organisations, including the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, have reported several thousand deaths, while the United Nations suggested the toll could be higher. Iranian officials dispute these claims, stating that around 3,100 people were killed and accusing protesters of causing widespread damage and casualties among law enforcement.
Several Kurdish opposition groups in Iran have denied Trump’s claim. Mohammed Nazif Qaderi of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran told Rudaw that “those statements made are baseless” and that they had received no weapons from the US. Other Kurdish groups, including the Komala Party and the Kurdistan National Army, echoed this, insisting that they had not obtained a single bullet from any foreign actor.
The US has a long history of cooperating with Kurdish groups, particularly in Iraq, and Kurdish fighters have periodically clashed with Tehran in western Iranian provinces. While Kurdish armed factions in Turkey and Syria have entered peace agreements with their respective governments, Iraqi Kurds maintain a semi-autonomous region along the Iraq-Iran border.