ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he does not want Kurds to launch an offensive against Iran and make the conflict “any more complex than it already is.”

“We’re not looking to the Kurds going in,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We are very friendly with the Kurds … but we don’t want to make the war any more complex than it already is.” 

Trump’s remarks came two days after he had expressed full support for a military offensive by Iranian Kurdish opposition groups against Iran.

The US president, however, did not state whether the US would be willing to provide air cover should such a campaign begin. 

Bases of Kurdish opposition groups in the Kurdistan Region have repeatedly come under attack over the past week, since the US and Israel launched a major offensive against Iran.

Earlier in February, Kurdish opposition groups from western Iran (Rojhelat) formed a joint coalition aimed at toppling the Iranian government, with the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan announcing on Wednesday it had joined the alliance, bringing the total number of groups in the coalition to six.

On Friday, Trump stressed that there will be no deal with Iran except “unconditional surrender,” saying that the US will work to rebuild Iran after the selection of a “great and acceptable leader(s).”

A day later, he said that Iran will be “hit very hard” unless it surrenders or “more likely, completely collapses.”