The United States and the Kurds generally have a cooperative relationship. The U.S. sees Kurdish groups as valuable military partners, and the Kurds often see the U.S. as their most powerful international supporter, though no formal alliance exists between the two.
The Kurds are being discussed as a possible partner for the United States in the conflict with Iran. Thousands of Kurdish fighters reportedly crossed Iraq's border with Iran last week as part of a ground offensive against the Iranian regime, though a top official in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq vehemently denied that "Iraqi" Kurds were involved.
Officials with one of the armed Kurdish Iranian dissident groups based in northern Iraq recently told the Associated Press they are not planning an imminent cross-border attack on Iran but would join a ground invasion if the U.S. were to launch one.
"The Kurds are an ethnic minority," notes Bob Maginnis, president of Maginnis Strategies. "Their ability to influence the political situation inside Iran I don't think is all that strong."
Most Kurds live in the mountainous region that stretches across parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. Estimates of the population range between 25 million and 45 million worldwide, but there are no official statistics, as the Kurdish people do not have their own state.
Rebaz Sharifi, a military commander with the Kurdistan Freedom Party PAK, says his group's "ultimate goal is the statehood of the Kurds in all four regions and the reunification of Kurdistan."
"They could be an independent country if they could get all those countries to agree to carve out the northern part of Iraq and other pieces there," Maginnis tells AFN.
But none of those countries will agree.
"The Kurds might be a fighting force; they might be able to make some headway, but I suspect they're going to make headway only in the area where they want to take over and make it part of Kurdistan," the national defense analyst submits. "That's an age-old problem; that's not a new issue. Kurds have always banded together across borders and tried to defend one another."
Sharifi has said it would be "a very positive development" if the U.S. and its allies were to arm the Kurdish groups, but he also denied that they have received any such support so far.
Maginnis is not sure if the Kurds will do what is in the best interest of the 90 million people of Iran.
