ZERGUEZ, Iraq — At his mountain base just 62 miles from the Iranian border, the Kurdish Iranian opposition leader says he is confused about the Americans. Abdullah Mohtadi, the secretary-general of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, asks bluntly, “What is the American policy on Iran?”

Mr. Mohtadi, who has met with American officials in the past year at the State Department and other government agencies, says that when he describes his party’s operations inside Iran and makes pleas for public support, all he gets are nods. “There is no clear strategy in terms of Iranian opposition or Kurdish opposition in Iran,” he says. “They show some sympathy toward us. They have started to publicly say things about ethnic groups and women, but there is no formal strategy. We still don’t know what the U.S. wants to do with this regime.”

The questions from Mr. Mohtadi, whose Komala Party is one of four major Kurdish parties now organizing in Iran, would likely surprise the Bush administration’s spokesmen — and its critics. The president himself touted a decision in 2006 to set aside tens of millions of dollars for Iranian opposition groups and the opening of a special office in Dubai to monitor the Iranian regime’s activities. Meanwhile, Seymour Hersh has reported in the New Yorker on American contacts with some Iranian ethnic factions. In March, ABC News had a report on American links with Baluchi rebels in Iran blamed for exploding a bus carrying Iranian Revolutionary Guard members.

Mr. Mohtadi says his group, which claims some 800 fighters and a non-violent wing that focuses largely on party organization and propaganda, is not looking for America to invade Iran or even to provide military assistance, as Iraqi opposition parties sought in the 1990s. “We are not asking for an invasion. We are saying that helping Iranian parties fight for democracy and regime change is good for us and good for America,” he says.

At least rhetorically, the president would appear to agree. Since 2003, he has pledged that as Iranians stand up for their political rights, America will stand with them. But this rhetorical support has been matched with a record of privately and publicly seeking negotiations with envoys of the Iranian regime, particularly with regard to Iraq. This week, the Iranians agreed to specific days to meet with their American counterparts to discuss Iraqi security, Last month, the commander of the coalition forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, accused Iran’s Quds Force of spearheading an operation to kidnap and kill five American soldiers near the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

Mr. Mohtadi’s request for American assistance also marks a departure from the Iranian reformers and student groups in Tehran who have supported a constitutional referendum aimed at eliminating the unchecked power that the supreme leader and council of guardians in Qom wield over the country’s courts, military, and legislature. As The New York Sun reported prior to his first trip to America, the dissident writer Akbar Ganji specifically asked that America give him no support, noting that any American assistance would lead to the deaths of his comrades. Mr. Ganji has not yet returned to Iran.

The support Mr. Mohtadi seeks from America is conditional, however. He does not want, for example, to be used as a cudgel to harass the regime. “It is better to publicly announce support,” he says. “This is a justifiable strategy in terms of helping the Iranian people. Iranians deserve a better regime. Iranians deserve a democratic government.”

Inside a compound on the slopes of the Karadagh Mountains, the Komala Party’s operations appear modest. There are trailers, running water, a space for military training, and even a playground for children, guarded by a perimeter fence. Money for living expenses, Mr. Mohtadi says, comes from the Kurdistan regional government, which has asked his group, as well as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, to refrain from launching military operations inside Iran. Mr. Mohtadi says he respects the wishes of his hosts and is focusing his group’s efforts on creating political cells inside the Kurdish provinces, where he estimates 10 million Iranian Kurds live.

The group’s operations in Iran, as well as a satellite television station based in Sweden, are funded by private donations from inside Iran and from Kurds in Europe and America, Mr. Mohtadi says. Part of the Kurdish strategy in Iran is to form alliances with other ethnic factions, such as the Ahwaz Arabs, Baluchis, and Azeris, he says.

In this respect, Mr. Mohtadi does not favor Kurdish separatism, a thorny issue that has kept many in the Iranian opposition from forging close ties with the Kurds.

“We believe in mobilizing people through mass protests. When the time is right for armed struggle, provided it is part of a political struggle, we would consider it,” he says.

The Komala Party has been affiliated with the Socialist International. But Mr. Mohtadi says the European left in particular has done little for his cause. “There was never a clear strategy from our European comrades in terms of Iranian opposition or the Kurdish opposition,” he says.

Toward the end of an interview with the Sun, Mr. Mohtadi says he now thinks he has some common ground with socialism’s nemesis, Washington’s neoconservatives. “We have some things in common with the neocons,” he said. “We both believe in the democratization of the whole Middle East.”