As Trump Pushes Kurds Against Iran, Did Netanyahu Raise 'Baloch Card' With Modi? Kejriwal Should Realise the Allure of Jantar Mantar is Misplaced
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March 3, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan
As the United States realises aerial bombardment alone may not lead to the ‘regime change’ it seeks to impose on Iran, President Donald Trump is laying the groundwork for using ethnic insurgents in Iran’s neighbouring countries to mount ground operations against the Islamic Republic. Axios reports that Trump has spoken to Iranian Kurdish leaders based in Iraq, most of whom have welcomed the US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
Given that the triggering of civil war inside Iran has always been part of the Israeli gameplan, it is worth asking whether Benjamin Netanyahu sounded out Narendra Modi during the latter’s recent visit to Israel about the possibility of India using its influence with Pakistan-based Balochistan insurgent groups to turn up the heat on Iran’s southeastern flank. Certainly, going by the public pronouncement of Baloch nationalist groups, they already see the USIS – to use a new acronym for US-Israel – attack on Iran as an opportunity for themselves.
https://x.com/miryar_baloch/status/2028792150113329622?s=20
“It is time for the world to arm our people,” says one tweet by a prominent Iranian Baloch social media handle. “After the airstrikes on the mullahs' regime and the shattering of this corrupt regime's dominance, it is time for the world to arm our people as quickly as possible to crush this regime and bring the revolution to its conclusion. To dry up the roots of the terror regime, arm our people.”
India’s Baloch policy so far has focused on the impact the ethnic movement is having on the security and stability of Pakistan. From this perspective, having the Baloch turn their focus on Iran may then be counter-productive. Nor is the prospect of a civil war inside Iran something that will help India. But then Israel appears to be in the driving seat here—Marco Rubio conceded today that the US ‘pre-emptively’ attacked Iran because Israel was about to do so and that Iran would thus have retaliated by hitting out at American targets— and the Modi government has so far shown no appetite to assert India’s national interests in the face of USIS pressure.
The deaths of Indian nationals — apart from some missing — in the escalating West Asia conflict, now in its fourth consecutive day, have cast a harsh spotlight on the Indian government’s muted response to the crisis, even as Prime Minister Modi, over the last 48 hours, has spoken with leaders across the region — including those of the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Saudi
