Scoop: Trump calls Kurdish leaders in Iran war effort

Zoom in: Trump spoke to leaders from the two main Kurdish factions in Iraq — Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani — a day after he authorized the Saturday bombing campaign, two of the sources said.

• A source with knowledge of the calls said they were "sensitive" and declined to give details on their content.
• The calls were the culmination of months of behind-the-scenes lobbying by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, another source said. Israel has had close security, military and intelligence ties with the Kurds in Syria, Iraq and Iran for decades.
• "It is the general view, and certainly Netanyahu's view, that the Kurds are going to come out of the woodwork ... that they're going to rise up," one official said.

Inside the room: Netanyahu, who "has been relentless" in urging strikes on and regime change in Iran, first advocated for the Kurds in a White House meeting with Trump.

• "When he first came over and sat with Trump for hours, you would have thought Netanyahu had it all figured out," the official said.
• "He had the successor planned out. He had the Kurds all figured out: Two sets of Kurdish groups here and there. This many people are going to rise up," the official added.

What they're saying: Asked specifically about Trump's calls with the Kurds, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to discuss specifics.

• "President Trump has been in contact with many allies and partners in the region throughout the past several days," she told Axios.

Driving the news: On Sunday, the Kurdistan Freedom Party — a Kurdish-Iranian opposition group based in the Kurdistan region of Iraq — accused Iran of a punishing campaign of missile and drone strikes.

• Six days before the war began, five dissident Kurdish groups sheltering in Iraq announced the formation of the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan to fight Iran.

Zoom out: "The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Iraq and one of the largest in Iran, and are often described as the largest ethnic group in the world without their own country. Their ancestral lands span southeastern Turkey, northern Syria, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran.

• Kurds govern an autonomous region of northern Iraq that was made possible by the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

• Kurdish fighters called "peshmerga" — which means "those who face death" — have decades of combat experience from fighting in Iraq and against ISIS in Syria.

The big picture: A group of battle-hardened, boots-on-the-ground fighters would add a crucial war-fighting dimension to the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign that began Saturday.

• In the 2001 Afghanistan War, the U.S. similarly used heavy air support to cover the maneuvers of ethnic minority fighters on the ground to help topple the Taliban regime.

Friction points: The Kurds have a hostile relationship with Turkey, a U.S. and NATO ally, which could be a complication.

• "The president is talking to everyone. He's talking to the Kurdish leaders. He's talked to [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan," the source said.
• The announcement last week of the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan also led to tensions with an exile group led by the former crown prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi.

What's next: While U.S. policy-makers believe Netanyahu might have overestimated the number of Kurds who might take up arms against Iran, "it's not nothing," the official said.

• "What their role would be in either the war or post-war Iran, is above my paygrade," the official said.