President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One Saturday that he ruled out the possibility of Kurdish forces moving in as a means to further escalate Operation Epic Fury against Iran.

“We’re not looking to the Kurds going in,” he said on March 7.

“We don’t want to make the war any more complex than it already is,” he added.

Trump said that the Kurds were willing to go in, but he doesn’t want them to go in and get hurt and killed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also expressed this position, including to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

“Frankly, I discussed this issue with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during our telephone conversation,” Fidan told the media in Istanbul on March 7.

“There are indications, rumors, that such a situation exists [that the United States is working to mobilize Kurdish forces against the Iranian regime]. He stated that they are not making such an effort, that they have no such intention. However, as I said at the time, Israel’s intentions in this matter are no secret.”

The Kurdistan Regional Government itself put out statements on March 5, denying that it was part of any plan to send armed parties into Iranian territory.

“The Kurdistan Regional Government and the political parties within it are not part of any campaign to expand the scope of war and tensions in the region,” spokesperson Beshwa Horamani said on X. “On the contrary, we call for peace and stability in the region, and we strongly condemn the cowardly attacks targeting the Kurdistan Region.”

“Reports claiming that the Kurdistan Region has a role, and allegations asserting that we are part of a plan to arm and send opposition Kurdish parties into Iranian territory, are completely devoid of truth, and we categorically and unequivocally deny them,” he added.

Still, Fidan spoke out against any possibility of a Kurdish uprising, specifically urging against any scenarios that further escalate the conflict by sparking an ethnically-based civil war.

“We, our intelligence agency, and our defence minister—everyone—are expressing to their counterparts the wrongness of this and the problems and difficulties it could cause,” he said. ”In other words, we are against all scenarios that aim to instigate a civil war in Iran, or to create conflict along ethnic or religious lines.”

Turkey has already been affected by the conflict in Iran, reporting on March 4 that NATO air defense systems shot down an Iranian missile heading into Turkish airspace, making it one of a dozen nations facing attacks from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Turkey’s head of communications, Burhanettin Duran, wrote in a statement on X that his nation was prepared to respond to “any potential hostile acts” in accordance with international law.

Reuters and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.