The Jerusalem Post has reported that Israel had a fully prepared plan, backed by the Mossad and Israeli air power, to use Kurdish forces to help topple Iran's regime, but that U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed the operation at the last minute, with Israeli security sources accusing Vice President J.D. Vance of leaking the plan to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to the report, the plan was championed by outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea, who saw it as a way to open an internal ground front against Tehran using both Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish fighters, including some of the same fighters who took part in the 2003 U.S.-backed operation to help topple Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Sources close to Barnea said Israel intended to provide continuous air support for the Kurdish ground push, giving Kurdish forces the ability to advance without needing to deploy American ground troops.
The Post reported that when Barnea spoke to Trump by video call on February 12, he did not promise the Iranian regime would fall immediately, but estimated that toppling it could take a year or more after the war's conclusion, and that a Kurdish ground operation would significantly improve the odds of eventual regime change. The IDF did begin striking Iranian regime and Basij forces in Kurdish areas as part of the campaign, but the Post reported that only around ten percent of the targets meant to support the broader Kurdish operation were ultimately hit, since that stage of the plan was halted before it could fully proceed.
Israeli sources quoted in the report accused officials within the White House, and pointed specifically at Vance, who has voiced skepticism about the war with Iran, of leaking details of the plan to Erdogan in time for the Turkish president to reach Trump and stop the operation before it could move forward. Turkey has long viewed Kurdish military organization as a direct threat to its own security, and Ankara has made clear it would not tolerate Kurdish independence movements gaining strength anywhere in the region.
Vance's special assistant and press secretary, Luke Schroeder, denied the allegation, telling the Post the report was "categorically false" and that his office would have said so had reporters reached out for comment before publication.
There remains debate even within Israeli and American circles over whether it was Erdogan's direct pressure on Trump, or skepticism among Trump's own senior officials, that ultimately killed the plan. CIA Director John Ratcliffe has been reported as holding a strong position against the Kurdish option, though sources say he never directly told Israeli officials he opposed it. Defense Minister Israel Katz has also been notably skeptical of the plan when asked about it publicly, in contrast to senior Mossad officials, who maintain the operation could have succeeded had Trump allowed it to proceed.
Several Iranian Kurdish parties, including the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, have publicly denied receiving weapons from Israel or the United States as part of any such plan, calling reports to that effect "completely untrue."
