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President Donald Trump publicly aired his frustration on Friday, confirming a covert operation to arm anti-government protesters in Iran has ended in failure and murky accountability.
Speaking to reporters, Trump expressed anger that weapons intended to spark an uprising were not used, saying he is “not happy” with the Kurdish groups who were supposed to deliver them.
“I’m not happy with the delivery of the weapons. I’m not thrilled with it. But I’m not happy with what happened with the Kurds. The Kurds did not deliver the weapons.”
— President Donald J. Trump
The admission marks the first time a sitting U.S. president has openly confirmed a covert program to arm civilians inside Iran. It also confirms Tehran’s long-standing accusations that the massive protests that swept the country late last year were “foreign-backed”.
💣 The Covert Plan: From Airwaves to AK-47s
The plan unfolded against the backdrop of nationwide anti-government protests that erupted in Iran in late December.
- The Backchannel: Trump revealed that the U.S. had been communicating with “Kurdish groups” based in Sulaymaniyah, in northern Iraq, to serve as intermediaries.
- The Arsenal: The U.S. sent “a lot of guns” with the intended destination being anti-regime protesters inside Iran.
- The Goal: The strategy was to provide the means for Iranians to fight back against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with Trump believing that even a small number of armed citizens could lead to the regime’s collapse.
🔍 The Kurdish Denials and the ‘Guns for Ourselves’ Theory
Trump believes the operation failed not because of Iranian action, but because of what he describes as a “black market” interception by the Kurdish conduits themselves.
The president’s frustration stems from his conclusion that the weapons were never delivered to the protesters. He theorizes that the Kurds, upon receiving the advanced American weaponry, simply decided to keep them to bolster their own fighting forces, telling him, “This is great, we’re going to keep it for ourselves”.
Multiple Iranian Kurdish opposition groups have publicly denied this. Leaders from parties such as the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) stated they received no such shipments and that Trump’s allegation could make them a target for Iranian retaliation.
“We’ll see who has them”
Perhaps most alarmingly for U.S. military accountability, when asked about the current whereabouts of the arsenal—which included a “small amount of weapons” as well as “a lot of guns”—President Trump admitted he has no idea. “We’ll see who has them,” he told reporters, suggesting the federal government does not currently have a fix on the location of the missing arms.
⚖️ The Strategic and Political Fallout
- Bolstering Tehran’s Narrative: The admission plays directly into the hands of the Iranian regime, which has consistently claimed the protests were not an organic uprising but a “hybrid war” fomented by the United States and Israel.
- A Complicated Backdrop: This covert action took place while the Trump administration was simultaneously engaged in back-channel negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, revealing a “maximum pressure” strategy that combined diplomacy with efforts at destabilization.
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