Iran's Araghchi reveals Turkey's role in thwarting Kurdish offensive

In a dramatic new twist in the Iran conflict, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has confirmed what President Donald Trump had been alluding to for some time: Turkey helped prevent armed Iranian Kurdish groups from opening a new front inside Iran as part of what Tehran says was a US-Israeli regime-change effort.

In an interview lasting more than an hour with Iranian media personality Javad Moghouei on Sunday, Araghchi emphasized the "effective" role Turkey played in thwarting what he described as a US- and Israeli-backed Kurdish insurgency that was to have been launched from neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan.

Araghchi said he had contacted Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Iraqi Kurdish leaders and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan early in the conflict after receiving reports that Trump had reached out to unnamed regional leaders to discuss plans for the "fragmentation of Iran." He said he warned them that "if the slightest threat emerges toward us from the Iraqi Kurdistan region, we would confront it … and we would certainly respond."

Turkey, he added, "talked to the Americans and adopted a very firm position in this regard. A series of efforts foiled this plot." Araghchi did not elaborate.

Araghchi's revelations came amid a sharp escalation in the wake of the collapse of an April ceasefire between Iran and the United States. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declared on Monday that Iran was engaged "in a full-scale war" following overnight strikes by the United States on numerous targets inside Iran. Iran has retaliated with attacks on US military targets in Jordan as well as on an alleged "enemy command center" in Syria's al-Tanf, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday.

Deciphering Trump

Araghchi's comments appear to shed light on Trump's claim in late June that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had considered entering the conflict on Iran's side but ultimately refrained after Trump urged him to stay out.

Responding to reporters' questions after a White House meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump said, "You know, he was a leading candidate to go into the war with Iran, maybe even on Iran's side, because he is not a big fan of Israel, as you know. I asked him to stay out of it, and he stayed out of it."

Trump's remarks baffled many observers at the time because Turkey and Iran, despite being historic rivals, have avoided direct war since 1823, when the Treaty of Erzurum was signed between the Ottoman and Persian empires.

Trump repeated the assertion on the sidelines of the NATO summit held in Ankara on July 7-8.

Citing unnamed senior Israeli officials, Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported on Sunday that Turkey had threatened to provide air support to Iran if Kurdish forces invaded the country as part of Mossad's ground operations. Details of the alleged Israeli plan — initially backed by the CIA — to arm and support Kurdish groups were previously reported by Al-Monitor and other international media outlets. Reports that Erdogan had persuaded Trump to abandon the plan also circulated at the time, though they had never been confirmed by Iran until now.

Still, Iran is not taking any chances and is carrying out sustained attacks on armed Iranian groups based inside Iraqi Kurdistan. At least nine members of the Komala Toilers of Kurdistan Party were killed in a suspected Iranian missile attack on the Iraqi Kurdish-controlled province of Sulaimaniyah on Friday.

Seeking to end its own decades-long conflict with Kurdish militants, Ankara is also concerned about the prospect of a Kurdish uprising in Iran. The most powerful of the armed Iranian Kurdish groups is the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), which was established by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the rebel group that has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. US support for an independent Kurdish state has long ranked among Ankara's principal security concerns. Those fears were partly eased after the Trump administration withdrew its support in January for another PKK-linked group in Syria, only to be reignited a month later.

Within days of launching the war against Iran on Feb. 28, Trump told Reuters that it would be "wonderful" if the Kurds took up arms against the regime. "I'd be all for it," he said. Iraqi officials, speaking on background to Al-Monitor, confirmed at the time that Trump had pressured Iraqi Kurdish leaders not to stand in the way of a ground offensive that would be launched from their territory. It did not take long, however, for the president to reverse course, apparently after Erdogan urged him to do so, as Araghchi has now confirmed.

Turkey has not formally responded to any of the claims.

Rina Bassist contributed to this report.