Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the matter, that thousands of Iranian Kurdish fighters positioned near the Iraq-Iran border are preparing to launch an attack within the coming week. The initial objective is to seize control of strategic border towns in western Iran, including Oshnavieh and Piranshahr.

Iranian Kurdish sources told Reuters that the factions' long-term goal is to establish a semi-autonomous governing region within a federalized Iran, modeled after the Kurdistan Region in Iraq.

The preparations follow consultations between Kurdish groups and the United States regarding potential operations against Iranian security forces, as well as Israeli airstrikes supporting the effort by targeting areas in western Iran.

President Trump has publicly expressed support for such Kurdish actions.

Iran has responded with recent strikes on Kurdish opposition positions in Iraqi Kurdistan. The developments risk opening a new western front in the escalating regional conflict.

The United States and Israel have held discussions on deploying special forces—potentially U.S., Israeli, or joint teams, possibly with nuclear experts—into Iran during a later phase of the ongoing conflict to seize or neutralize its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Iran is believed to possess approximately 450 kg of uranium enriched to 60%, material that could be rapidly converted to weapons-grade levels sufficient for multiple nuclear weapons.

Options under consideration include physically removing the uranium from Iran or diluting it on-site. Any such ground operation would only proceed once Iran's military is sufficiently degraded to limit effective resistance.