Pentagon eyeing new areas to pressure Iran, reviewing plans
washington — The US military said it was identifying new areas where it could work with allies to put pressure on Iran in support of President Donald Trump’s new strategy, which promises a far more confrontational approach to Tehran.
Trump struck a blow against the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement on Friday in defiance of other world powers, choosing not to certify that Tehran is complying with the deal and warning he might ultimately terminate it. He also promised to address Iran more broadly, including its support for extremist groups in the Middle East.
Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Defence Department spokesman, said Pentagon was assessing the positioning of its forces as well as planning but offered few details.
“We are identifying new areas where we will work with allies to put pressure on the Iranian regime, neutralise its destabilising influences, and constrain its aggressive power projection, particularly its support for terrorist groups and militants,” he said.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said his first goal would be to talk with US allies in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere to gain a shared understanding of Iran’s ac-
We are identifying new areas to put pressure on Iran to neutralise its destabilising influences.”
Jim Mattis, US Defence Secretary
tions. “Certainly we intend to dissuade them from shipping arms into places like Yemen and explosives into Bahrain and the other things they do with their surrogates, like Hezbollah,” Mattis said.
The US military has long been a strident critic of Iran, accusing it directly and indirectly of trying to undermine the US and its allies, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The tensions escalated in recent months in Syria, where American pilots shot down two Iranian-made drones.
Still, a more aggressive approach to Iran could trigger a backlash from Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and forces that it backs. That includes in Iraq, where US troops are fighting Daesh and trying to keep their distance from Shia militia aligned with Iran.
“US forces in Iraq are quite exposed, and coalition forces are quite exposed to the risk of attack if Iranian elements so choose,” said Jennifer Cafarella, lead intelligence planner at the Institute for the Study of War, a think-tank in Washington.
The US military is analysing an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP, that killed an American soldier in Iraq this month. The reappearance of the device, which Iranbacked Shia militia routinely used to target American troops in Iraq before their withdrawal in 2011, has startled US officials.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo noted the device was detonated in an area controlled by a militia backed by Tehran. “We do not have evidence of a direct link to Iran, but we are closely examining this tragic incident,” Pompeo said on Wednesday.
Cafarella said the killing of the US soldier may have been a warning from Iran. “I think it is possible that the Iranians have been attempting to signal their commitment to retaliate against the US strategy,” she said. Mattis said the United States was watching for any new provocations from Iran. Asked whether he thought Tehran might retaliate, he said: “It would be ill advised for them to attack us.”—