Iranian Kurdish dissident groups based in northern Iraq are preparing for a cross-border military operation into western Iran, with the United States asking Iraqi Kurdish leaders to facilitate the movement of fighters and weapons, Kurdish officials told the western media on March 4.

The Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) said some of its forces had moved to areas near the Iranian border in Sulaymaniyah province and were on standby. While Kurdish authorities are sending their own troops to stop Iranian Kurds from mounting an assault across the border, following a day of bombing the exits out of the Islamic Republic. 

Khalil Nadiri, a PAK official, confirmed that Kurdish opposition leaders had been contacted by US officials regarding a potential operation.

An official from the Komala party, another Iranian Kurdish group, said their forces were ready to cross the border within a week to 10 days and were "waiting for the grounds to be suitable."

The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, CNN reported, citing multiple people familiar with the plan. The Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing military support. 

The plan centres on using Kurdish fighters to stretch Iran's security forces thin and create space for unarmed civilians in major Iranian cities to protest without facing the kind of violent crackdown that killed thousands during unrest earlier this year. Another idea discussed involved Kurdish groups seizing and holding territory in western Iran to create a buffer zone for Israel, which would likely be met with an assault by regular citizens who oppose Kurdish separatists. 

Six Iranian Kurdish parties (one of which is banned in Turkey) have united under a joint framework called the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan (CPFIK), formed six days before the war began. The parties operate on both sides of the border and all maintain armed wings, with thousands of battle-hardened fighters concentrated in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region.

President Trump spoke by phone with the heads of Iraq's two main Kurdish factions, Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani, on March 1 to discuss the war and what might come next, Axios reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had for months lobbied Trump to engage the Kurds, having first raised the issue during White House meetings, Axios previously reported. 

Some Kurdish fighting forces have already crossed into Iran in preparation for an attack, according to Kurdish sources who spoke with Israel Hayom. A tentative agreement is emerging among four Kurdish factions to form a joint bloc, with the long-term objective of establishing an autonomous region in western Iran, Israeli media reported on March 5.

The Israeli military has been striking Iranian military and police outposts along the Iraq-Iran border in recent days to lay the groundwork for the possible flow of armed Kurdish forces into northwest Iran, sources told IntelliNews. The Kurdish rights organisation Hengaw said strikes on Kurdish-majority areas of western Iran had killed hundreds of Iranian security personnel.

The potential operation has placed Iraqi Kurdish leaders in a delicate position. One Iraqi Kurdish official said they were concerned that getting directly involved would draw a harsh Iranian response. The Kurdistan Region has already suffered drone and missile attacks by Iran and allied Iraqi militias targeting US military bases, the US consulate in Erbil and Kurdish opposition bases. 

Iraq's national security adviser Qasim al-Araji said Baghdad would not allow groups "to infiltrate or cross the Iranian border to carry out terrorist acts from Iraqi territory," adding that the Kurdistan Region's interior ministry had sent Peshmerga reinforcements to the border.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth distanced the Pentagon from the reports. "None of our objectives are premised on the support or the arming of any particular force," he told reporters. "What other entities may be doing, we're aware of, but our objectives aren't centred on that."

Late on March 5, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Trump had spoken to Kurdish leaders "with respect to our base that we have in northern Iraq" but denied that he had agreed to a specific plan.