Ted Cruz Calls for Arming Iranian Kurds to Topple Tehran Regime, Says Turkey's Objections Don't Matter

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Friday the United States should arm Iranian protesters, including Kurdish groups, to push for the collapse of Iran's theocratic government. He made the case on Fox News Channel's "The Story."

"I think we ought to go down that road," Cruz said, arguing the objective following this year's U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear and military sites should be regime change, not just degraded capability.

Cruz laid out his reasoning in blunt terms. He said Iran's government has been "waging war with the United States for 47 continuous years," called it the "world's number one leading funder of terrorism," and said it has killed "nearly a thousand Americans." He also referenced past reporting that Iranian operatives twice sought to assassinate President Trump.

Cruz praised Trump's decision earlier this year to strike Iran's nuclear and military infrastructure, saying the president was "exactly right" to act. But he argued the administration should go further by equipping Iranian protesters, not American troops, to finish the job.

"President Trump is not going to send American boots on the ground," Cruz said. "We should not have American soldiers in harm's way in Iran." Instead, he said, arming demonstrators would let "the Iranians" determine "their own future."

Cruz cited estimates that between 10,000 and 40,000 protesters were killed by Iranian security forces in unrest earlier this year, saying it isn't reasonable to expect civilians with rocks to face down soldiers with machine guns.

The Turkey Problem

The most pointed part of Cruz's remarks concerned Turkey. He said the Trump administration had internal discussions about arming Kurdish groups inside Iran, but that the idea was reportedly shelved because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opposed it.

"I don't care that Erdogan in Turkey doesn't like it," Cruz said. "It is in our interest not to have a theocratic lunatic leading Iran."

Turkey is a NATO member and has fought a decades-long armed conflict with Kurdish militant groups, including the PKK, which Ankara, Washington, and the European Union all designate a terrorist organization. Turkish leaders have long viewed U.S. support for Kurdish forces, including in Syria, as a direct threat to Turkish security. Arming Kurdish factions in Iran would almost certainly be read in Ankara as an extension of that pattern, regardless of the target being Tehran rather than Turkey itself.

Cruz didn't address how Washington would manage that alliance strain, or distinguish which Kurdish factions might receive weapons versus groups with their own separatist ambitions that could destabilize Iraq, Syria, or Turkey itself.

Where the administration actually stands

Breitbart's own reporting notes that the Trump administration has stopped short of formally naming regime collapse as a policy objective, a hesitation Cruz himself attributed to lingering caution from Iraq-era regime-change failures. Vice President JD Vance said this week on Fox News's "Ingraham Angle" that resolving the Iran situation "is going to be messy" and will "take some time." That's a notably more cautious tone than Cruz's, and it underscores that Cruz is pushing a position, not describing settled policy.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have kept up hostile rhetoric. Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mocked Trump on social media platform X for what he called "theater diplomacy," alternating threats of "massive attack" with claims of openness to negotiate. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Iran would only negotiate "from a position of strength" and claimed coordination between Iranian diplomacy and its military posture "has never been as strong as it is now."

Iran has also been negotiating with Oman over joint control of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei, who said in comments carried by Iranian state media that the talks have reached their "final stages." Iranian lawmakers are separately weighing legislation that would bar vessels from the U.S., Israel, and other "hostile" nations from transiting the strait.

What's unproven

Cruz's claim that arming protesters would keep American soldiers out of harm's way assumes the U.S. can supply weapons to opposition groups without escalating into deeper involvement, an assumption not tested by current events. There's also no public confirmation from the Trump administration that arming Kurdish groups was formally considered and rejected specifically because of Erdogan's objections. That detail comes from what Cruz described as "public reporting," not a named administration official or document.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), by contrast, argued on C-SPAN's "Ceasefire" the same day that the better path is diplomatic: getting leaders from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, and other regional powers to negotiate directly, rather than arming internal factions. Sessions also said he doesn't believe the House currently has the votes to grant the president broader war authority related to Iran.

No legislation authorizing arms transfers to Iranian opposition groups has been introduced. Whether Cruz's position gains traction with the White House, or whether Vance's more cautious framing prevails, remains an open question heading into the fall.