A GOP congressman on the House Armed Services Committee said that the Biden administration’s response to attacks in the Red Sea shows that U.S. deterrence in the Middle East is failing, which allows Iran to exploit that weakness to undermine U.S. interests in the region.
“It tells us and our adversaries and our allies loud and clear that deterrence is failing,” Mr. Waltz said. “We have put significant assets in the region, air defense assets, bombers, an additional aircraft carrier, and now have a multinational coalition of ships in the Red Sea. And yet the attacks keep continuing.”
Mr. Waltz pointed out the reason behind those attacks is that the response from the Biden administration is not strong enough to warn the Iranian regime.
“The reason is, we’re not hitting back on things that Iran cares about. All roads lead back to Tehran,” he said.
“But right now, every time you hear the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, Jake Sullivan, the National Security Adviser come to the mic and say our number one goal is non-escalation or de-escalation,” he continued. “Tehran hears that as an opportunity that the United States is not going to hit back in a way that hurts us.”
Mr. Waltz, who served as a Special Forces officer in the Middle East, suggested solutions to prevent those attacks from targeting U.S. forces in the region.
“I want to be clear: that’s not for some major military escalation. You can use cyber; you can use financial means. Or you could hit facilities, as President Trump did, or people like Soleimani that the Iranians care about,” he added.
Such disruption could hurt global trade, he warned.
“If you continue to shut down shipping in the Red Sea, 20 percent of global trade flows through the Suez Canal, that is going to drastically affect global oil prices, which are rising again, and global shipping prices,” Mr. Waltz said.
He also warned that the non-escalation approach from the Biden administration “is actually making Iran more wealthy to further fuel terrorism in the region.”
In the interview, when asked about the Israel-Hamas war, Mr. Waltz suggested that the United States should reverse its policy on Iran to support Israel once the Hamas terrorist group is gone.
“Israel is just going to be mowing the grass in Gaza,” he said. “It’s going to grow back; terrorism is going to come back as long as Iran is flush with cash.”
Warning From the Iran Regime
Iran has threatened to shut down the Mediterranean Sea shipping waterways because of what it describes as “crimes” committed by the United States and its allies in Gaza, as Tehran-backed Houthi terrorists continue to attack merchant vessels traveling through the region.“They shall soon await the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, [the Strait of] Gibraltar, and other waterways,” said Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a general with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, according to a Dec. 23 report from Iranian state media.
Iran does not have direct access to the Mediterranean. As such, it is unclear how the Islamic nation intends to close off the sea. Mr. Naqdi talked about “the birth of new powers of resistance and the closure of other waterways.”
