Remember the Turkish Kurdish separatists, the PKK? Well, Slate introduces us to the Iranian Kurdish rebels now using Iraqi Kurdistan as their operational base. Their goal? Apparently, to win Iranian Kurds autonomy from the Tehran regime:

PJAK has watched how Kurds in Iraq have won their autonomy, and its strategy is to duplicate those efforts in Iran. After the first U.S. war against Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Kurds seized the moment to massacre local Baathists and create a de facto independent Kurdish state. They then waited for a decade to act as a proxy for the United States in executing a coup de grâce against Saddam.

The Iranian Kurds in Qandil are eager to do the same against Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs in Tehran—first by working with other Sunni minorities to destabilize the central government's hold on Kurdish areas, then by waiting for Washington to come in and help it make Kurdish autonomy official.

Whether they are finding any marriage of convenience with any other elements also seeking to destabilize the Tehran regime is the subject of speculation among various Iranian exiles.

Posted by Laura at June 13, 2006 11:19 PM