Inside the Oval Office this week, after a crowd of jostling reporters departed into the Rose Garden, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz tried to get an answer from President Donald Trump: how, exactly, did he envision the war with Iran ending?
Despite some pressing by the chancellor, the answer from the president — as it has been since the conflict began a week ago — wasn’t quite clear, according to a person familiar.
As the US military operation against Iran shifts into a new phase following last Saturday’s opening salvo, how the war ends remains the top question for many officials, lawmakers and US allies.
In briefings with lawmakers and congressional staff in recent days, Pentagon officials have leaned into the US military mission being narrowly focused on destroying Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, people who attended the briefings said, rather than on targeting Iranian nuclear facilities or taking out regime figures or military personnel. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has spoken dismissively of repeating the “nation building” exercises of past administrations.
At the same time, Trump has offered far more expansive goals that appear to extend beyond the military’s stated remit. On Friday, he lumped in the “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” of Iran’s current regime as an additional requirement for the war to conclude.
The apparent disconnect has only fueled questions about where the conflict, which is already broadly unpopular among Americans, is headed. In conversations with their US counterparts, Arab and European officials say they haven’t detected what exactly Trump’s endgame looks like, or if it exists at all.
Emerging from briefings with senior administration officials this week, lawmakers similarly professed little understanding of how Trump will know he has achieved all his goals in Iran, or whether he has a plan for what comes afterward. Some lawmakers also appeared unnerved by the fact that Hegseth would not rule out putting US troops on the ground in Iran.
At the same time, the Trump administration has quietly tried to enlist the help of Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish opposition groups. For months, the CIA has been in discussions with multiple Iranian Kurdish groups about carrying out a potential ground offensive intended to help foment a popular uprising inside the country, multiple sources told CNN.
CIA is working to arm some of those groups and the US has discussed providing air-support for Kurdish ground forces if they were to launch an offensive, CNN previously reported.
Discussions between the CIA and Iranian Kurdish groups have also included political proposals for if the regime ultimately does collapse, according to Amir Karimi, co-chair of the PJAK, which is one of the Kurdish groups in talks with the US.
PJAK is supportive of the US-Israeli operations but has reinforced to the CIA that overthrowing the regime can’t be done by military force alone, Karimi told CNN in an interview this week. The group has also told the CIA it wants a political relationship with the US and Trump administration — which includes having a say in who would ultimately become Iran’s next leader.
“We believe it is a legitimate war, however we want support for forces on the ground who are fighting for democracy in Iran. This is not something that can be done by bombardment alone,” Karimi said, adding that the US could help unite Kurdish groups so they can fight the regime together.
"We’re not looking to the Kurds going in. We’re very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don’t want to make the war anymore complex than it already is,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“Yeah, I have ruled it out. I don’t want the Kurds going in. … They’re willing to go in, but I’ve told them, I don’t want them to go in,” Trump said. “The war’s complicated enough without having — getting the Kurds involved.”
Karimi said his group has made clear to the Trump administration they do not believe anyone from outside Iran should be “helicoptered in to lead this fight,” and voiced strong opposition to any efforts that involve backing exiled Iranian activist Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah, in the short or long term.
Trump himself downplayed him as an option earlier this week, saying, “It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate.”
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