Kurdish intermediaries allegedly withheld the weapons instead of attempting to facilitate regime change in Tehran

The US sent "a lot" of weapons to Iranian protesters during unrest in January, President Donald Trump has told Fox News.

The demonstrations, initially driven by economic grievances and marred by violence, were openly incited at the time by Trump, who threatened the Iranian authorities with retaliation for suppressing the unrest. Tehran described the demonstrations as foreign-instigated and accused the US and Israel of fueling the movement, blaming armed provocateurs for deadly clashes.

In a phone interview on Sunday, Trump told reporter Trey Yingst that Washington had carried out a covert effort to arm demonstrators. He claimed the plan had little effect because Kurdish intermediaries allegedly kept the weapons instead of delivering them.

During the early stages of the Iranian protests, former CIA chief Mike Pompeo - who led the 'maximum pressure' campaign against Iran in Trump's first administration - praised the rioting, sending his regards to protesters and "every Mossad agent walking beside them."

In mid-March, the New York Times reported that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency sought to "galvanize the Iranian opposition" during the early phase of the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28.

Mossad chief David Barnea reportedly presented a destabilization plan to the Trump administration in January. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited the agency's optimism in making the case to Trump for military action.

However, instead of being overthrown by a mass uprising alongside targeted assassination of Iranian leaders, Tehran consolidated its control. A Kurdish offensive in Iran, which Trump had also encouraged, did not materialize either.

The US has a long history of supplying arms to groups aligned with its strategic goals. In the 1980s, the CIA supported jihadist insurgents in Afghanistan fighting Soviet forces. More recently, the Obama administration authorized the Timber Sycamore program in Syria, intended to help 'moderate rebels' topple the government in Damascus, which ended up strengthening radical Islamist factions.