Some of the latest reports suggest the United States and Israel are winning their ongoing war against radical Islamist Iran.  Both American President Donald J Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claim this.  Besides, Washington today is also in touch with the Kurdish leaders to engineer an uprising against the clerical regime in Iran. One, however, is not sure if the potential US-Israel victory in this war would pay rich dividends in terms of what the Kurds have long sought — self-government/ autonomy for themselves.

Incensed over the denial of their right to political autonomy for long, the Kurds have been very active against the Islamist regime in Iran, particularly since the death of Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish young woman, in detention at the hands of the country’s religious authorities in 2022.  They launched nationwide protests against the regime last year. But the country’s security forces waged a brutal crackdown on them in the Kurdish regions.

One thinks the future of Kurdish autonomy is still highly uncertain in Iran. It is well documented that the Iranian Kurds have had comparatively much less international political exposure than their counterparts in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Besides, President Trump does not seem to be very firm in his resolve to dismantle the current Iranian regime. His new goalpost is to extract “unconditional surrenders” from the current Iranian regime.  If the regime stays in power, it is likely to do what it has long been doing – mercilessly crack down on all those forces, including the Kurds.

Regrettably, Washington does not seem to have ever advanced the Kurdish cause. In 1946, the Kurds came to establish the Mahabad Republic. But Washington did not stand by the Republic. Like the successive post -1946 US presidencies, the Trump one, too, does not seem to be dependable in advancing the Kurdish cause. It may be recalled that last year, the Trump presidency dropped support for the Syrian Kurds. It showed little consideration for the Kurds who, in alliance with the US military, had fought the barbaric Islamic State in Syria. Not only that. Soon after the overthrow of the dictatorial Bashar al-Assad regime, President Trump insisted that the Syrian Kurds agree to the conditions of Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who had happened to be a notorious Islamist for long.

History bears out Washington has always just pretended to stand by the Kurds. The US Central Intelligence agency did provide some support to the Kurds in the past. In the wake of the 2003 US invasion of dictator Saddam Hussein-led Iraq, it provided training and equipment to the Peshmerga forces in the Kurdistan region. Wahington imposed a no-fly zone over the Kurdish region in Iraq. That led to the creation of a de facto the Kurdish Regional government in the country. In Syria, the CIA funded, armed, and trained Kurds to fight the Islamic State. But Washington has, by and large, glossed over the need to do what has  really been required to advance the Kurdish issue.

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