Pezeshkian thanked Turkey for helping to prevent an Israeli plan to foment an armed insurrection by Kurdish groups in western Iran, a source familiar with the visit told Middle East Eye. They said Ankara was concerned that, following the failure of the Kurdish insurgency plan, further Iranian action against Kurdish groups in Iran and Iraq could push them into Israel’s arms. It was relatively easy for Turkey to convince Washington that arming the Kurds was a bad idea. “The Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which has hosted these groups for many years, would bear the greatest cost of such a development,” he told MEE. “Following the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, the KDP and PUK, despite their intense rivalry on numerous issues, adopted a common position that Iranian Kurdish opposition groups should not become involved in the Iran conflict,” he told MEE.