The Kurdish coalition forces have organized a military and are now awaiting external material support to arrive before they carry out any ground operations in Iran, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) representative in the UK, Razgar Alani, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
Alani explained that the six Kurdish parties that recently joined together as a coalition were preparing both their military and diplomatic forces for the potential fall of Tehran but were uncertain if they would play a role. Young people from the West, and even from within Iran, have traveled to join the military force, he claimed, adding the current situation was a “golden opportunity” to finally topple the regime.
Waiting for the green light
“They need the external support, and this external support has to be from the USA. I think they haven’t received this guarantee yet, and they haven’t got the green light from the USA to start this operation,” he explained. “But two weeks ago, at the beginning of the war, everyone was talking [about how] the Kurds are going to start… but I think the USA, as far as I’m aware, has changed its mind on a ground operation for now.”
Laughing at an Al Jazeera report that claimed the party only had 1,200 members, Alani said PDKI alone had amassed thousands of supporters ready to join the cause, and that number was a fraction of the coalition’s backers. “No one knows but the leadership team,” he quipped when probed by the Post.
Asked why the US hasn’t made the necessary promises, Alani suggested it was because the Trump administration was hesitant to see the Kurdish community pay the price of any potential operation and that they may be holding off to see how many other minority groups in Iran are willing to take up arms against the regime.
'The Kurds are our ally'
“As Mr. Trump said, ‘The Kurds are our ally, and they already paid a heavy price. I don’t want them to be killed and hurt,’” he recounted.
Founded in 1945 in Mahabad, PDKI has explicitly declared itself as a party pursuing social justice, gender equality, and democracy, values that have seen it at odds with the Islamic regime and were quickly banned following the Islamic revolution in 1979. Years of discrimination against Iran’s Kurdish minority saw a reignited military campaign from 2016 onward.
Alani shared that in the early days of the regime, PDKI leaders met with Tehran to try to overcome issues, but the regime was unwilling to allow the Kurds to keep their rights, leading Tehran to launch a “holy war” against the Kurds.
Since the failed peace efforts, Iran’s Kurds have been at the forefront of the regime’s brutality and have occupied its prisons in larger numbers than is representative of the actual demographic makeup of the country.
Those suspected of being related to opposition activists have been barred from accessing higher education and government positions, he shared, while the regime has done its utmost to suppress the Kurds’ traditional language.
Questioned about the recent statements against the Kurdish coalition by Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi – who claimed the organizations were “separatist groups” that collaborated with Ruhollah Khomeini and were now threatening the territorial integrity of Iran – Alani rejected that the Kurdish people were seeking to damage Iranian sovereignty.
When the coalition announced its formation, the parties released a statement swearing to continue to “struggle for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to achieve the Kurdish people’s right to self-determination, and to establish a national and democratic entity based on the political will of the Kurdish nation in Iranian Kurdistan.”
Alani said that accusations of separatism were often used to slander Kurdish groups, but they only wanted to see federalism and their rights respected and honored.
'We are Kurdish Iranians'
“We are Iranians, but we are Kurdish Iranians, and we want to stay inside Iran. We want our rights inside Iran,” he asserted. “I think this is just, unfortunately, propaganda from some of the opposition… even the regime in Tehran, they always use this propaganda… Our plan for the future of Iran is federalism.”
While admitting there is a dream of self-determination and Kurdish statehood, Alani asserted that Iran is a beautiful and rich country with people from all ethnic backgrounds and said he would be against destroying that.
He shared that the realistic solution lay in empowering local governments, not in statehood. Sharing power, he said, is a way to make sure each of Iran’s ethnic minority groups is represented and protected in a way that they haven’t been under the Islamic regime.
“We can have a great country. We can have a democratic, secular government and good relationships with our neighbors in the Middle East and especially with the Western countries,” he assured, adding his own reflections on the lack of industrial investment in Kurdish regions for the past few decades.
Speaking on the recent strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan, which included attacks on PDKI bases, Alani said the regime’s attacks were affecting the Iraqi economy and also threatening regional stability. International military bases had been targeted, which could drag the West and NATO into a much larger conflict, he warned.
Alani, like many of those who oppose Tehran, has faced attacks by the Islamic regime, though he was reluctant to share more information. Tehran has frequently targeted dissidents on UK soil, including Iranian international journalists and political activists. Despite the danger, Alani has continued to campaign and do political outreach on behalf of Iranian Kurds.
Monitoring the situation from England, Alani connects with sympathetic politicians, particularly in the Labour Party, which is also a member of the Socialist International, to ensure they are fully aware of every human rights abuse committed by Tehran so they can campaign for action against the regime.
He has also been working to ensure the UK is fully aware of the threat the IRGC poses on its own soil.
“One of the issues I always raise [is that] the IRGC is really influencing the UK,” he noted, adding that Iran had used third persons to establish a financial network in the country and was behind a large-scale influence campaign targeting British youth.