Türkiye helped foil plan to divide Iran: Araghchi

TEHRAN

Türkiye played a key role in preventing armed Iranian Kurdish groups based in Iraq from opening a new front in the war against Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said.

In an interview aired by Iran’s Majaraa Media on July 19, Araghchi said Ankara had taken a firm stand against what he described as a U.S.-Israeli plan to divide Iran and provoke internal unrest.

Araghchi claimed U.S. President Donald Trump contacted figures in Iraq’s Kurdistan region on the fourth day of the war over a possible ground operation against Iran.

After learning of the alleged plan, Araghchi said he spoke with Iraqi Kurdish leaders Masoud Barzani and Bafel Talabani, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

He said he warned that Tehran would respond if any threat emerged from the Kurdistan region while Iran was fighting the United States and Israel.

“Türkiye played a very effective role in this process,” Araghchi said.

“It held talks with the Americans and took a very firm position on the matter. These collective efforts ensured that the plot to divide Iran and create internal unrest failed.”

Reports published during the early stages of the war described an Israeli intelligence proposal to arm Iranian Kurdish groups based in northern Iraq and support an advance into northwestern Iran.

The reports said Washington initially considered the plan but dropped it following objections from Ankara.

Türkiye and the United States have not publicly confirmed those details.

Fidan warned in March that attempts to exploit Iran’s ethnic or religious divisions to trigger a civil war would be a “grave mistake.”

He said at the time that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had denied Washington was involved in such an effort.

Araghchi also accused Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, of supporting the partition of the country during a visit to Israel.

He alleged that Pahlavi had agreed to allow Iran’s border regions to be taken while he ruled the center of the country as shah. Araghchi offered no evidence for the allegation.

In another part of the interview, Araghchi said he had told U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff that military pressure would not force Tehran to make concessions.

“You cannot threaten us, and you cannot buy us,” he recalled telling Witkoff.

“Iran is not Venezuela, where you take one person and everyone else becomes afraid and backs down.”

The interview came after the breakdown of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, signed by the United States and Iran in June following mediation by Pakistan and contributions from Qatar and Türkiye. Renewed fighting erupted in early July.