Kurdish Iranian opposition groups denied receiving arms from the US after a new report appeared on Fox News on April 5. This is the second time Kurds have been put in the spotlight since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28.
A month ago, in early March, there was also a misleading report about a Kurdish offensive into Iran. The offensive never took place, and it now appears that the details were leaked in advance. The Kurdish opposition groups have been cautious since the war began, resisting pressure to launch an uprising by themselves in Iran, in which they would face the brunt of the regime’s response.
Reports about Kurdish Iranian groups tend to be sensitive because the groups fear an Iranian regime crackdown, and the groups have already been targeted by hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles, killing and wounding some of their members since the war began.
It's important to understand some context here. There are numerous Kurdish Iranian opposition groups. They have been increasing their coordination over the last few months since protests began in Iran in late December 2025. In February, the groups announced a broad coalition of five Kurdish groups that agreed to coordinate policy on Iran and on the groups' next steps.
Most Kurdish groups deny receiving weapons
The five members of the coalition were the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), a branch of the Komala party, and Khabat, a conservative religious Kurdish party. The groups represent most Kurdish groups in Iran. They are from a broad spectrum of Kurdish politics. For instance, the PDKI is a centralist nationalist group with roots in the 1940s and the struggle for Kurdish independence.
PJAK is a left-leaning group often said to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party. As such, Turkey views it as a terrorist group. Komala, which has three branches, is a left-leaning group. PAK is a nationalist group that played a role in fighting ISIS. PAK has worked with the US-led anti-ISIS coalition in the past. PJAK has some ideological ties with members of the SDF in Syria, which was the main US partner against ISIS.
The report at Fox News by Trey Yingst noted that “The United States sent guns to the Iranian protesters through the Kurds," President Trump told Fox News. The report, posted on X, also noted that Trump had said "we sent guns to the protesters, a lot of them…And I think the Kurds took the guns." It’s worth noting that after the leaked story of a Kurdish offensive in early March, an offensive which never happened, Trump had told reporters on March 8 that he didn’t want to see Kurds getting hurt or killed in the war.
Most of the Kurdish groups have now put out statements denying the claims that they received weapons. Shukriya Bradost, an expert on the region, noted that “based on my sources within Kurdish parties, none of them received any weapons during Iran’s protests.” For instance, the Kurdish group PDKI has said it did not receive weapons.
Hejar Berenji, the PDKI representative in the US, noted, “As the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, we firmly reject the information reported by Fox News. Any claims suggesting that we have received weapons from any administration are inaccurate and do not reflect reality.”
The Kurdish Free Life Party, called PJAK, has also said it did not receive weapons. Journalist Ferid Demirel noted on X, “I asked PJAK External Relations Committee Member Zegrus Enderyari about Trump's statement. Enderyari also stated that there is no such relationship between them and the US as PJAK.” He added, “In response to the question of whether the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan (CPFIK) has such communication with the US, Zegrus Enderyari similarly said, ‘As a coalition, there is no such thing.’”
Amjad Hossein Panahi, a member of Komala, also denied the reports. He said, “Contrary to the allegations raised by Donald Trump regarding the delivery of weapons to Kurdish parties, we hereby declare that we have not received any form of military or arms assistance from the US.” Diyar Kurda, a journalist with Rudaw, also noted, “I spoke with senior officials at the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Ministry of Peshmerga, who said they are ’not aware of any weapons being transferred’ to the Kurds.” Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a journalist and expert on Kurdish issues, also posted on X that “I spoke to several Iranian Kurdish party leaders on the ground, and they have all denied reports that they received weapons from the United States.”
Ceng Sagnic, the Chief Analyst at a multinational geopolitical intelligence firm and a well-known expert in Kurdish issues, wrote on X about the reports and why President Trump’s statement “does not add up and may reflect a misunderstanding for several reasons.” He noted that “Kurdish groups have access primarily to Kurdish-populated regions, not to Tehran, Tabriz, or Isfahan. The geography alone would make it extremely difficult to deliver shipments to the major Iranian cities where protests were taking place." He also noted that Kurdish groups operating in western Iran are “largely limited to pedestrian routes for small groups, effectively making large-scale weapons transfers nearly impossible.”
In addition, he noted that “there is no coherent political entity that could hypothetically receive a weapons shipment from Kurdistan. The non-Kurdish Iranian opposition is highly fragmented and lacks leadership. Sad but true.” Lastly, the “fragmented opposition also lacks the capacity to maintain secure logistical corridors to Iraq, Turkey, or Afghanistan, namely the border areas. If such networks existed, protester groups would not require US-supplied weapons to reach major cities. There is no shortage of weapons in Iran’s rural border regions. These regions even serve as the main weapons distribution points for insurgencies from Pakistan to Lebanon. Tehran is well aware of this and has worked smartly to sever potential links between protest groups and these porous, gun-rich areas.”
Even if Kurds do nothing, they are accused of “separatism” in Iran
The overall picture that emerges is that Kurdish Iranian opposition groups continue to lack arms and continue to be rightly cautious of entering into an uprising in Iran, where they will be singled out and targeted for retribution. Some of the other opposition groups in Iran who oppose the regime also oppose the Kurdish groups, and they will seize on any Kurdish involvement to accuse Kurds of “separatism.” This means that even if Kurds do nothing, they are accused of “separatism” in Iran, and if they act, they are accused of derailing the anti-regime movement. This sense that the Kurds will be betrayed, or that their involvement will be used against them, has led to the groups being cautious.
Reports about arms are thus taken seriously by the groups, who have had access over the years only to small arms such as AK-47s. Many of the opposition groups are lightly armed, but despite not launching an uprising, they have already been attacked hundreds of times by Iran since the conflict began. This is because Iran seeks to single them out and deter them. Iran has used Iraqi militias to carry out the attacks, essentially warning the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq to prevent the Kurdish Iranian groups, which have bases in northern Iraq, from doing anything active in Iran.