Trump calls Iranian Kurdish leaders based in Iraq: Report
The Axios news outlet is reporting that the US president has spoken with the leaders of the two primary Kurdish factions in Iraq, Masoud Barazani and Bafel Talabani, a day after the joint US-Israel attacks on Iran.
The outlet noted the factions have thousands of soldiers along the Iran-Iraq border and control strategic areas that could be significant as the war develops.
It said Iraq’s Kurds also have close ties to Iran’s Kurdish minority.
An unnamed source told Axios that the “calls were the culmination of months of behind-the-scenes lobbying by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”.
Israel has had close security, military and intelligence ties with the Kurds in Syria, Iraq and Iran for decades.
“It is the general view, and certainly Netanyahu’s view, that the Kurds are going to come out of the woodwork … that they’re going to rise up,” one official was quoted as saying.