Setting the stage for a new confrontation with Iran, the U.S on Wednesday said it was “putting Iran on notice,” for conducting a ballistic missile test that it described as violation of a U.N resolution. Blaming Iran for a range of other “destabilising activities” in the region, a senior Trump administration official did not rule out the military option.
The official, who did not want to be named, indicated that the Trump administration would put its entire weight behind Saudi Arabia and UAE, while upending the breakthrough with Iran, a key foreign policy achievement of the previous Obama administration.
“Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile. Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!” tweeted President Donald Trump. “Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion,” he said.
Asked whether the U.S response could “include a military option,” the administration official said: “We are considering a whole range of options. We’re in a deliberative process.”
The official sought to delink the action being contemplated against Iran now from the operation of the nuclear deal with it, agreed upon by Germany and five permanent members of the U.N Security Council. He said Iran’s obligations under the nuclear deal would stay intact, even as the U.S considers new punitive measures for missile test and other activities. This argument makes the ground for imposing sanctions on Iran while appearing to be not scrapping the nuclear deal as promised by Mr. Trump during the campaign.
Pursuing a collision course with Iran will have a spiraling effect on the U.S relations or plans with several other countries, such as Mr. Trump’s attempt to reset ties with Russia and attempts to arrive at some settlement for the crisis in Syria. Significantly for India, a renewed conflict with Iran will preempt the possibility of a fresh U.S strategy in Afghanistan that is less dependent on Pakistan.
While Mr. Trump appears eager to overturn Obama’s Iran rapprochement, he has abandoned his own criticism of the Gulf States during campaign and embraced Saudi Arabia, particularly its bombing of Yemen — which is a continuation of the Obama policy. “In recent days, we've had violence in the Yemen area and the Red Sea. The Houthis have claimed credit for the 30 January attack on a Saudi military vessel and an attack this past October on an Emirati leased vessel. This past fall, the Houthis attempted attacks against United States naval vessels in the Red Sea,” the official said, putting the onus on Iran to contain them.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have been critical of the nuclear deal with Iran, and the U.S hostility towards Iran is renewed days ahead of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington on February 15. "In my upcoming meeting with President Trump I intend to bring up the renewal of sanctions against Iran. Iran's aggression cannot be left without a response,” Mr. Netanyahu said on twitter hours before the White House statement. "Iran again launched a ballistic missile. This is a flagrant violation of a Security Council Resolution,” he said.
