00:00I have more and more strikes in on these Kurdish groups on the border there between Iraq and Iran.
00:06Why are they being targeted? Explain it to us.
00:08Well, look, because these Kurdish Iranian groups have said that they are preparing,
00:15that they are moving closer to the border between Iraq and Iran,
00:20and that they are on standby for a possible military operation crossing the border into Iran.
00:28This threat is serious enough that the Iranians have, through their state media, contested, denied reports
00:37that there were already several armed Kurdish groups that were crossing into Iran.
00:44It hasn't happened so far.
00:45But as you see on this map, the Kurds, they're really spread over several countries.
00:51But specifically in what we're talking about, it's their position in northern Iraq, in Kurdish Iraq,
01:00where you have those Iranian Kurds that could potentially go into Iran.
01:06And Ali Lairijani, who's the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council,
01:11he said that separatist groups should not think that a breeze has blown and try to take action.
01:18We will not tolerate it.
01:20The Iranians, in talks with the Iraqi central government to try to secure that border,
01:26telling the Iraqis, you need to control your side of the border to prevent those Iranian Kurds
01:32from crossing over into our territory.
01:35The worry here is that, as you said, these Iranian Kurdish groups, they're armed.
01:41There are thousands of members.
01:44They are seen as heavily organized and the most organized of the opposition to the Iranian regime.
01:51Now, they're probably not strong enough to take on the Iranian military or the Iranian security forces.
01:57They're probably not powerful enough politically either to take over Iran if the regime were to stumble.
02:05However, they could cause quite a bit of problems for the Iranian regime.
02:09A, because by crossing the border, for example, they will force Iranian forces to take them on on that border,
02:19making them easier to target by the Americans, by the Israelis.
02:24They're also going to have to turn their focus to a second front, if you will.
02:30And that means that the Iranian military will have to focus on that border,
02:34and that will take away some of the focus of how do you protect yourself,
02:39how do you retaliate to the Israeli and the American attacks.
02:43And that is why they're so focused on that small border and on those groups.
02:48How strong is the U.S. backing for these Kurds?
02:50Because the Kurdish groups in Iraq have long worked with the U.S., haven't they?
02:53Yes, and there are several U.S. media reports that claim that Donald Trump and his administration
03:00have been in talks with the Kurdish leaders and have been helping those Iranian Kurdish groups over a little bit
03:10of time.
03:11There was a response yesterday by the White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt.
03:16She was asked about these reports.
03:17She confirmed the fact that Donald Trump had been in talk with Iranian Kurdish leaders,
03:23but only said that those talks were focused on the U.S. base in northern Iraq.
03:30And she said that the rest, this idea that the Americans were planning for these groups to cross over in
03:36Iran
03:36and attack Iranian forces, was completely false.
03:40The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hexeth, he said this.
03:44He said none of our objectives are premised on the support or the arming of any particular force.
03:50So what other entities are doing, we are aware of, but our objectives aren't centered on that.
03:56That's not exactly denying that the U.S. is helping those groups or in discussions with those groups.
04:03However, the media reports in the U.S. are really focused specifically on how the CIA might be helping those
04:11Iranian Kurdish groups.
04:13The reporting there is that the CIA, which is present in northern Iraq with an outpost,
04:18has been for a while now, before the start of the war in Iran, helping transfer weapons to these Iranian
04:26Kurdish groups.
04:27There has been no confirmation by the CIA or by the Trump administration.
04:31But the idea is that the U.S. could count on these groups to create problems, to create chaos for
04:39the Iranian government.
04:40There is, however, some questioning within the U.S., according to that reporting,
04:45as to how much they can trust those Kurdish groups, because there are plenty of them
04:50and they're not necessarily agreeing on everything amongst each other.
04:54There's also a little bit of mistrust coming from the Kurds themselves towards the Americans,
04:59because, yes, there has been a long tradition of those two sides working together.
05:04But the Kurds also know that there's been a long tradition of the Americans leaving them out to dry,
05:10for example, in Iraq back in the 90s or in Syria more recently,
05:15whether it was under Donald Trump's first term or more recently in the last few months.
05:21So they do want to work together because they seem to have the same enemy.
05:25But at the same time, they're not necessarily fully 100 percent trusting each other.
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