Author: Orhan Keleman
QAMISHLI, Syria, March 8 (Reuters) – Kurdish residents of northeastern Syria have warned Iranian Kurds against allying with the United States against the Iranian government, citing their experience in Syria in recent months as evidence that Iranian Kurds will be “abandoned”.
Iranian Kurdish militiamen stationed in northern Iraq have consulted with the United States in recent days on whether and how to attack security forces in western Iran, as the United States and Israel carry out air strikes against Iran, Reuters reported.
But Syrian Kurds have warned their Iranian counterparts not to cooperate with Washington.
“I hope the Iranian Kurds will not ally with the United States because they will abandon them,” said Saad Ali, 45, a resident of Qamishli, a Kurdish town in northeastern Syria.
“Tomorrow, if they (the United States) make a deal with the Iranians, they will wipe you out. Don’t make the mistakes we made,” he told Reuters.
Syrian Kurdish militants allied with the United States to fight the Islamic State group more than a decade ago, establishing their own semi-autonomous region in territory they seized from ultraconservative Islamist militants.
But in January, new forces led by Syrian President Ahmed Salat launched an all-out offensive and captured much of the Kurdish-controlled area. Syrian Kurds have called on the United States to intervene on their behalf, but they felt betrayed when Washington urged them to merge with Sala’s forces.
‘Negative experience’ with U.S.
It remains a painful experience for Syrian Kurds, who say Iranian Kurds should learn a lesson.
Amjad Kardo, a 26-year-old Syrian Kurd in Qamishli, said: “I think the Kurds in Iran should maintain a firm position: they will not start any war in Iran without a firm guarantee signed by the United States on the future of these Kurdish regions in Iran.”
“Especially us Kurds in Syria, who had a bad experience with the Americans in Syria, gave up on the Kurdish resistance.”
An Iranian Kurdish source said Kurdish leaders were genuinely worried about being “betrayed” like Kurdish groups in northern Syria.
Sources said Iran’s Kurdish leaders have asked for guarantees from the United States, but did not disclose the details.
U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters on Thursday it would be “wonderful” if Kurdish forces crossed the border from northern Iraq into Iran, but declined to answer a question about whether the United States would provide them with air support.
On Saturday, he appeared to change his stance, telling reporters he did not want Kurdish forces entering Iran.
Syrian Kurds say ‘please proceed with caution’
Ahmed Barakat, chairman of the Syrian Kurdish Progressive Democratic Party, told Reuters that Iranian Kurdish forces should be “extremely cautious.”
Barakat said the decision was ultimately up to them, but he believed “it is not in the best interests of the Iranian Kurds at this time to accept the U.S. invitation and be seen as a vanguard in confronting or weakening the Iranian regime.”
Israel has been negotiating with an Iranian Kurdish rebel group based in the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan for about a year, Reuters reported last week.
A century ago, when the borders of the modern Middle East emerged from the collapsing Ottoman Empire, the Kurds were a stateless people.
They are mostly Sunni Muslims who speak a language related to Persian and are concentrated in the mountainous region that straddles the borders of Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
In Iraq, they live in three northern provinces led by local governments. But in other countries — Iran, Türkiye and now Syria — their dreams of autonomous regions or states remain elusive.
(Reporting by Orhan Qereman; Writing by Kinda Makieh and Maya Gebeily; Editing by David Holmes)