Washington Says Working With Allies To Deter Any Iran Threats

In an open letter published on Wednesday, they said this “dangerous” agreement is “poised to instantly fuel explosive Iranian aggression and pave Iran’s path to become a nuclear power, threatening the American homeland and the very existence of America’s regional allies.”

According to authors of the letter, which was penned in coordination with the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), the accord currently being negotiated “will enable the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism to cast its own nuclear shadow over the Middle East.”

Calling the potential new deal “shorter and weaker” than the original agreement, they said it could “leave Iran twice as close to a nuclear weapon” as the 2015 accord, would “allow restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to start to lapse in two years”, and would “not prohibit Iran’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles”.

The retired American military leaders also voiced opposition to removing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which they described as Iran’s “main terrorist wing responsible for the deaths of at least 600 American troops”, off the US terrorist list, a key Iranian demand.

Lifting sanctions on Iran would “earn hundreds of billions of dollars for the radical regime in Tehran to fuel greater aggression against U.S. soldiers and our allies in the region”, they also warned.

The letter also noted that Moscow has played a “central role” in crafting the draft deal at a time when Russia is “ruthlessly attacking [Ukraine] and, by brandishing its nuclear weapons, forcing the rest of the world largely to stand on the sidelines”.

Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, who oversees the Navy’s 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, said on Wednesday that the task force would ensure a force presence and deterrent posture in the “strategically important” Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden.

The force will be commissioned Sunday to target arms smuggling as well as trafficking of people and drugs, Cooper told reporters.

The announcement comes as Washington is seeking to reassure Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by providing additional military support following a series of missile and drone attacks on the Persian Gulf nations in recent months. Vessels in waters around Yemen are crucial for global trade, including oil supplies, and vessels have in the past been targeted by the Houthis and other forces.

According to Cooper, the new task force will impact the Yemeni Shia rebels’ ability to obtain the weaponry needed for such attacks.

Iran has long been accused of smuggling weapons to the Houthis, a charge Tehran denies.

The new naval task force will consist of up to eight vessels and will be part of the 34-nation Combined Maritime Forces, which has three other task forces in nearby waters targeting smuggling and piracy.

Its launch comes amid a two-month truce in the nearly seven-year Yemen war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more.

With reporting by Reuters

In a meeting with a group of senior Iranian officials Khamenei had said the talks “are going well while the Iranian negotiating team will continue to inform the president, the Supreme National Security Council and other officials on the process, make relevant decisions, and move forward”.

However, in the new post on Wednesday replacing the earlier one, the first part of the sentence was changed to “The country's diplomacy is moving in the right direction”.

Following the revised tweet, several social media accounts close to Saeed Jalili, a former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, wrote that Khamenei had not made such a statement, and that the post was "an example of lies and distortion”.

Jalili, who was Iran's top nuclear negotiator under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from 2007 to 2013, is a leading members of a so-called “principlist” group described as the "extreme end of the fundamentalist camp" and "Iran’s most right-wing party", and staunch critic of the original 2015 deal.

During the past weeks, some lawmakers who are also members of the party, including Mahmoud Nabavian and Ali Khezrian criticized the Vienna talks, saying that the possible agreement was practically no different from the JCPOA, which they opposed. Some believe that their criticism is a response to the removal of Hamidreza Asgari, who is close to Jalili– from the negotiating team.

The two Arab countries announced in March that they will develop the Durra natural gas field, which is adjacent to Iran’s offshore Arash field at the tip of the Persian Gulf. At the time, the Kuwaiti government said that Durra is "entirely a Kuwaiti and Saudi field" and that the issue to be settled with Iran is just the demarcation of the area offshore a neutral zone shared by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia lying adjacent to Iran's maritime zone.

Iran denounced the Kuwaiti announcement on March 26, saying a joint Saudi-Kuwaiti project would be illegal without Iran’s participation.

Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, "The Arash/Al-Durra gas field is a joint field between Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Parts of it are located in areas between Iran and Kuwait whose water boundaries have not been defined. The Islamic Republic of Iran also reserves the right to exploit the gas field".

The two Persian Gulf Arab monarchies reaffirmed their right to develop the Durra natural gas field, located in this area, the Saudi Press Agency added, citing a Saudi foreign ministry statement.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait expect to produce one billion standard cubic feet per day of gas and 84,000 barrels per day of condensates.

In an article published in Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center for Strategic Studies journal Turkeyscope on Tuesday, Ambassador Hasan Murat Mercan highlighted the strong historical relationship between the Jewish and Turkish nations and urged further cooperation, especially in fields of security and energy.

Without mentioning Iran, he wrote, “Turkish-Israeli interaction offers more than a conventional regional partnership in the face of malign actors and trends”, adding that “Dealing with malign actors and their activities throughout our region is a particular area for enhanced coordination”.

“A more robust regional security cooperation between the two, with a specific focus on fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, will also have an added value to both countries’ national security,” he added.

Calling for engagement on regional affairs, he said that “Turkish-Israeli partnership would be effective to further curb destabilizing moves in broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA)”.

The power competition, which is the dominant trend in today’s world and runs the risk of confrontation, “writes off the so-called value of proxy-led spheres of influence” as “inter-regional and intra-regional alliances are becoming all the more relevant”.

Calling the Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Turkey “a visible message of peace and partnership”, he said both Herzog and Erdoğan defined the visit as a “new milestone” and expressed their shared goal to revive political dialogue and foster regional cooperation.