White House: "Trump spoke with Kurdish leaders…No plan to deploy ground troops to Iran"

The White House said U.S. President Donald Trump has been in contact with Kurdish leaders following airstrikes against Iran.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing on the 4th (local time), "President Trump did indeed have a phone call with Kurdish leaders regarding our bases in northern Iraq."

She denied speculation that the outreach was aimed at supporting Kurdish armed forces as part of a U.S. effort to topple Iran’s regime, saying, "It is absolutely not true that the President agreed to any such plan."

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported the previous day that President Trump contacted Kurdish leaders on the 1st, but had not decided whether to provide weapons, military training, or intelligence support to those armed groups.

Asked whether the United States is considering deploying ground troops to Iran, Leavitt said, "At this time, it is not part of this operational plan," while adding that President Trump "will not take (military) options off the table."

Asked whether striking Iran over its pursuit of nuclear weapons signals any change in the U.S. stance toward North Korea, Leavitt said, "There is no change in our position regarding North Korea."

Jin Young-gi, Hankyung.com reporter young71@hankyung.com