Pentagon reassures Middle East partners on deterring Iran
The US military is signaling its show of force against Tehran may continue as the State Department explores paths toward a renewed nuclear agreement.
As the Biden administration weighs next steps with Iran, the Pentagon is reassuring regional partners that deterrence remains central to US strategy toward Iran.
“Iran continues to be a malign actor in the region, continues to support terrorism throughout the Middle East, and they still pose threats to our partners and friends there,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters in his first press briefing under the new US administration Thursday.
“They still have an active ballistic missile program and they have been recently re-spinning centrifuges,” Kirby said, adding, “We still have national security interests in the Middle East and in the Persian Gulf specifically.”
The US military will continue its efforts to shield Washington’s partner states from the “acts of terrorism that Iran continues to propagate throughout the region,” Kirby said.
