Iranian Kurdish dissidents abroad watch for signs of Tehran vulnerability after war with Israel
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — From abroad, Iranian Kurdish dissident groups have been watching closely for signs that Iran’s theocracy could falter in its grip on the country, battered by Israeli airstrikes in the intense, 12-day war until a U.S.-negotiated ceasefire halted the fighting.
Israel launched the strikes on June 13, drawing Iranian missiles that targeted Israel. But it was not until the United States inserted itself into the war and hit Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday, including with 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, that the war came to a watershed moment.
Now, with the fragile ceasefire holding and many Iranians trying to return to a normal life, questions swirl about whether and how much the war has weakened Iran’s clerical rule, in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian Kurdish exiles in Iraq mull their options
A handful of Iranian Kurdish groups — many with a distinctly militant past — have long found a safe haven in northern Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, but their presence has been a point of friction between the central government in Baghdad and Tehran.
https://apnews.com/article/iraq-iran-kurdish-dissidents-israel-war-2ce4976aafbf225d8955b24c3bc31d42