Iraq's First Lady Tells U.S: Leave Us Alone, This Is Not Our War (Photos)
As 🇺🇸 Washington and 🇮🇱 Tel Aviv accelerate efforts to recruit the Kurdish for a ground offensive against Iran, Iraq's First Lady Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed issued a sharp public rebuke on Thursday, declaring that Kurds will not serve as disposable proxies for foreign powers.
"Leave us Kurds alone. We are not guns for hire," Ahmed said in a formal press statement released from her office in Sulaymaniyah.
The message amounted to the most prominent public objection from within Iraq's political establishment to the growing international pressure on Kurdish communities to take up arms in a war not of their making.
Ahmed's statement landed on the same day multiple reports confirmed that the CIA is working to arm the Kurdish with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, with the Trump administration in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish groups in Iraq about providing military support.
The initiative reportedly originated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Mossad, with the CIA joining the effort at a later stage.
In her statement, Ahmed invoked the 1991 Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein's regime, known as Raparin, which began exactly 35 years ago to the day.
Kurds were urged to revolt, she wrote, "only to be abandoned when priorities changed. No one came to our defense when the regime deployed helicopter gunships and tanks to crush the uprising."
U.S. intelligence assessments have consistently indicated that Iranian Kurds do not currently have the influence or resources to sustain a successful uprising.
Iranian Kurdish parties are also seeking political assurances from the Trump administration before committing to any resistance effort, and some Trump officials involved in the discussions have raised concerns about whether the dynamic could jeopardize a working relationship.
One administration official told CNN that it "may not be as simple as Americans convincing a proxy force to fight on its behalf."
Regional analysts have raised similar alarms. Neil Quilliam of Chatham House told Al Jazeera the plan "feels like a bad move," warning that it was "an afterthought" that reveals the war against Iran "has been poorly thought out."
He added that arming Kurdish groups would be a major concern for Washington's regional partners, most notably Türkiye and Syria, and a headache for Iraq.
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