US National Security Council requested the Department of Defence to provide military options to strike Iran last year after mortar shells and rocket fired by militants exploded near US diplomatic facilities in Baghdad. US National Security Council is the principal forum which is used by the President…
US National Security Council requested the Department of Defence to provide military options to strike Iran last year after mortar shells and rocket fired by militants exploded near US diplomatic facilities in Baghdad.
US National Security Council is the principal forum which is used by the President of US for consideration of national security, military matters and foreign policy matters.
Background
Political relations between Persia (now Iran) and the United States began when the Shah of Persia, Nassereddin Shah Qajar, officially dispatched Persia’s first ambassador, Mirza Abolhasan Shirazi, to Washington D.C. in 1856. The Persians sought US help in straightening out its finances after World War I.
Until World War II, relations between Iran and the United States remained cordial. In 1941, the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran deposed the Iranian monarch, Reza Shah Pahlavi and replaced him with his eldest son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Mohammed Pahlavi pursued a pro-American foreign policy and maintained good relations with the US for the duration of his reign. In 1951, Mosaddegh became the Prime Minister of Iran. It was Mosaddegh’s nationalisation of the Iranian oil industry that concerned the US. In August 1953, the Anglo Iranian Oil Company worked with Britain to successfully remove Mosaddegh via a military coup.
Following the coup, the United States helped re-install the Shah. Demonstrations against the Shah commenced in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance and Shah left Iran on 16 January 1979. He was replaced by anti-American Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. On 4 November 1979, a group of Iranian students occupied the US embassy in Tehran and held 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days. In April 1980, with the hostage crisis showing no signs of ending, Carter severed all diplomatic ties with Iran – and these have remained severed ever since. Pakistan serves as Iran’s protecting power in the United States, while Switzerland serves as America’s protecting power in Iran.
In 2015 the United States led successful negotiations for a nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) intended to dismantle Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, and when Iran complied in 2016, sanctions on Iran were lifted. The Trump administration re-imposed the sanctions in 2018.
Analysis
The White House’s National Security Council asked the Pentagon last year for plans to launch a military attack against Iran. The request made the National Security Council led by national security advisor John Bolton, alarmed Pentagon and State Department, officials.
The Council made the move after an Iranian-aligned group fired missiles into Baghdad’s diplomatic quarter, which hosts the U.S. embassy in Iraq. No one was harmed. The first incident saw Shia militia fire three mortar shells into the diplomatic district of Baghdad, where the US has its embassy. The second saw missiles fired by unknown militants fell near the US consulate in the southern Iraqi city of Basra a few days later.
It remains unclear whether President Donald Trump himself knew about the request, whether the Pentagon ultimately delivered military options to the White House, and if concrete attack plans against the Islamic Republic were actually formulated.
Mira Ricardel, the former deputy national security adviser, described the attacks in Iraq as “an act of war,” and said that the US needed to respond accordingly. Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the council, said that it “coordinates policy and provides the President with options to anticipate and respond to a variety of threats.” “We continue to review the status of our personnel following attempted attacks on our embassy in Baghdad and our Basra consulate, and we will consider a full range of options to preserve their safety and our interests,” the statement read.
Defence Department spokesman Col. Rob Manning said that the department “is a planning organization and provides the President military options for a variety of threats; routinely reviewing and updating plans and activities to deal with a host of threats, including those posed by Iran, to deter and, if necessary, to respond to aggression.”
John Bolton, an avid proponent of the Iraq invasion during the George W. Bush administration, has long taken one of the hardest lines against Iran in Washington and has openly supported the idea of regime change in Tehran. Mr Bolton warned that if Tehran harmed the US or its allies, there would be “hell to pay”. “If you cross us, our allies, or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat, and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay,” he said.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo is on a tour of the Middle East, pushing the administration’s position on Iran. He was in Saudi Arabia, having flown in from Qatar, calling for the region to unify against the threat posed by Iran. In Qatar, Pompeo provided details of a planned anti-Iran ministerial conference to be held, at US prompting, in Warsaw in February.
Assessment
Our assessment is that there are hardliners in US and Iran calling for military confrontation. Arab countries like Saudi and Israel have also joined hands to work against Iran’s expansion. We feel that the anti-Iranian sentiment has intensified and an alliance will be created to oppose Iran’s nuclear power, its expansion into Syria through Shiite forces in the region.
Leave a Reply