𝗪𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗞𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲
Air strikes alone will not topple the Iranian regime. It is a message the Trump administration has heard ad nauseam.
Five days into the war, the Pentagon appears to have its answer: there will be “boots on the ground” in Iran – only they will belong to proxy forces rather than US soldiers.
From the west, the CIA is working with Kurdish forces to prepare a ground offensive across the border with Iraq, according to CNN.
“Our armed forces inside and outside Iran are ready for anything, but will need external support,” Razgar Alani, a UK representative of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDK-I), told The Telegraph.
From the east, Pakistan-based Baluch Islamist groups have, in an effort to draw wider support, rebranded as the “Popular Fighters Front”, saying their goal is to liberate Iran.
And from the north, the plan to exploit the grievances of Iran’s ethnic patchwork will hope to draw in Azeris, who have led fierce protests against the regime. Together, these groups make up between a quarter and a third of Iran’s 90 million-strong population.
An armed uprising would aim to empower the vast number of Iranian citizens whose efforts to overthrow the clerical establishment have only been thwarted, to date, by mass murder carried out by the Basij paramilitary group and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The Kurds present America’s readiest, best-armed and most ideologically allied partners, although caution abounds because of the history of Western betrayals.
Most of Iran’s military, political and intelligence centres in the Kurdish regions have been bombed. This doesn’t mean their forces withdrew altogether, but they have left their bases and set up new, ad-hoc positions.
Let loose, instead, the CIA would then have another chance to dust off an old playbook with a less-than-sterling track record: backing ethnic groups to topple America’s enemies, and deliver a more pliant partner in the Middle East.
@Telegraph