Donald Trump said on March 7 that he has told Kurdish forces not to enter the Iran war.

Bloomberg reported the US president as outlining his position as he spoke on Air Force One on his way back to Florida after attending a military service for six fallen American soldiers.

“We’re very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don’t want to make the war any more complex than it already is. I have ruled that out. I don’t want the Kurds going in,” Trump was reported as saying.

He added that the Kurds had told him that they were “willing to go into Iran”, “but we really, I’ve told them, I don’t want them to go.”

Iranian Kurdish militia opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran regime that is under attack from US and Israeli forces, are gathered in Kurdistan, Iraq. A cross-border attack into western Iran, perhaps with US and Israeli air cover, would likely draw an angry response from Iraq and Turkey, concerned that Trump would be stirring a hornet’s nest in the region. Some reports say Israel has been actively pushing for the US to back a Kurdish attack. However, some analysts have cast doubt on whether the various Kurdish groups are united on whether or not such an incursion into Iran would be wise.

Turkey said on March 5 that its state institutions were keeping a close eye on the actions ​of the Iranian Kurdish Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) militant group.

"The activities of groups that fuel ethnic separatism, such as the terrorist organisation PJAK, negatively affect ​not only Iran's ​security but ⁠also the overall peace and stability of the region," Turkey's defence ministry told ​a weekly press briefing in Ankara, Reuters reported on March 5.

PJAK is aligned with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), through the Kurdistan Communirties Union (KCK), an umbrella group of Kurdish political and insurgent groups in Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. The PKK, based in mountainous northern Iraq, fought a four-decade-long armed insurgency against Turkish forces, prior to the declaration of a ceasefire and a peace negotiation, which remains fragile, a year ago. Both the PKK and PJAK are designated as terrorist groups by Turkey.

On March 4, CNN reported that the CIA has been working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran.