Riyadh Pushes For US Defense Pact Ahead Of Presidential Election

In a letter to President Biden Thursday, 18 Senators from both parties demand maximum efforts to “prevent illicit trade in Iranian oil,” which provides the regime with funds necessary to support its proxies.

“In the wake of the October 7 terror attacks and subsequent attacks by Iran-backed proxies on U.S. forces in the Middle East, we urge you to work harder to stop Iran’s funneling of lucrative oil exports to finance terror,” the Senators told President Joe Biden.

The letter comes right after a similar initiative by 62 House members, who stressed that ongoing attacks on US troops in the Middle East clearly show whatever is being done is not enough and more pressure must be applied on Tehran.

Significantly, both letters have been signed by some Democrats, as well as the more critical Republicans.

Senate Democrats seem to have lost patience with Biden’s unwillingness to effectively enforce sanctions on Iran’s oil exports. They have joined their Republican colleagues to suggest immediate sanctions against ships and even foreign ports that carry Iranian oil.

They point out that the Iranian regime has taken in at least $88b from their oil exports since February 2021, compared to just $5b when former president Trump’s “maximum pressure” was still in place.

Iran now exports oil more than any time in the past five years, according to Japan’s influential daily Nikkei, with as much as 90% of the total exports going to China. This is confirmed also by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which tracks Iranian oil exports.

"While global supply routes have been seriously affected by the Houthi attacks, Iran’s oil trade, especially to its number one importer, China, has continued unabated,” reads UANI’s latest report.

President Biden has been under growing pressure to reverse its policy on Iran since Hamas’ rampage of Israel –which many believe would have not been possible without the backing of the Iranian regime. The pressure has grown even further after last weekend’s deadly attack on American soldiers by Iran-backed militia Iraq.

“You cannot continue to embolden Iran,” Senator Marsha Blackburn said in an interview with Fox News Thursday. “You cannot continue to let them sell their oil and make billions of dollars, and then put that money into building nuclear warheads through uranium enrichment and through funding terrorism.”

Officials from the Biden administration say no Iran sanction has been lifted under their watch. But “enforcement” is as important as the actual sanctions. And it’s on the question of enforcement that the current administration seems to have disappointed many, even Democratic senators.

But what Biden critics want from him may not be readily achievable –not in 2024, at least.

"[Biden] prioritizes low oil prices, especially in an election year," says Robert McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group and a former senior White House policy official. "If [Biden] did crack down, it would impact global balances and prices, especially if Iran retaliated by threatening [Persian] Gulf production and export flows."

And then there’s China: Iran’s main customer which happens to be a global superpower. China can always find a way to get around the sanctions. It needs to: to keep feeding its gargantuan economy.

“Ultimately, China has and will continue to develop sanctions-proof entities which are not connected to the US financial system and won't be hurt (much) by sanctions,” former state department advisor on Iran Gabriel Noronha posted on X. “Leverage has to come from other files - as with recent China negotiations, find pressure everywhere."

Earlier on Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) organization said that an explosion was reported at a distance off a vessel's starboard side west of Yemen's Hodeidah.

The vessel and crew were reported safe, UKMTO said. It was unclear whether it was the ship targeted by the Houthis.

The Houthis' attacks on shipping "will persist until the aggression stops and the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted," the Houthi military spokesperson said in a statement.

The US and Britain have launched strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen and returned the militia to a list of terrorist groups as turmoil from the Israel-Hamas war spreads through the region. US attacked and destroyed Houthi drones on Wednesday as they prepared to launch against vessels in the Red Sea.

The Iran-aligned Houthi militants, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have launched exploding drones and missiles at commercial vessels since November 19, after Iran's Supreme Leader urged Muslim nations to blockade Israel.

The Gaza conflict has spilled over into other parts of the Middle East. Lebanon's Iran-aligned Hezbollah has traded fire with Israeli troops along the border, and Iraqi-armed groups have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq.

Citing US officials, CBS News reported on Thursday that Washington has sanctioned plans for multi-day strikes against various targets, including Iranian personnel and facilities. CBS did not provide details on what a US approval meant in terms of a timeline for the strikes.

NBC also reported Thursday that The Biden administration hasn’t yet finalized targets, but it is preparing a “campaign” that could last “weeks.” Citing unnamed officials, NBC said the targets are expected to include Iranian targets outside Iran, and the campaign will involve both strikes and cyber operations.

The attack by Iran-backed militia forces over the weekend resulted in the death of three American service members and left more than 40 injured. Since then, the global community has been anticipating a response from the United States to the Islamic Republic.

President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he had made up his mind on how to respond to the drone attack at the Tower 22 base in northeastern Jordan, near the Syrian border. Biden's top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said on Monday the US response "could be multi-leveled, come in stages, and be sustained over time."

Biden's administration said it was not seeking a war with Iran, even as Republican pressure on him to respond forcefully has been rising. Iranian officials have said Tehran will respond to any threat from the United States, emphasizing that Tehran would respond decisively to any attack on its territory, its interests, or Iranian nationals outside its borders.

Meanwhile, Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the IRGC, has reduced the presence of its senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli strikes and will rely more on its militia proxies. Also, Kataib Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian militia based in Iraq, said on Tuesday it was suspending military actions against the United States. Iran International reported last week that some in Tehran suspect an Israeli infiltration in tracking and pinpointing the whereabouts of senior IRGC officers in Syria.

Four US officials told Reuters on Thursday that the US has assessed that Iran manufactured the drone that slammed into the base. While the initial indications were that the drone was likely Iranian, a formal assessment was made only recently after recovering fragments of the drone.

Speaking at the Pentagon Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated that the US will not tolerate attacks on American troops. "This is a dangerous moment in the Middle East," Austin said, pointing to Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. "We will continue to work to avoid a wider conflict in the region, but we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people, and we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose."

"We're still doing the forensics," Austin said. "But most of the drones that are in the region have a connection with Iran... How much Iran knew or didn't know, we don't know. But it really doesn't matter because Iran sponsors these groups, it funds these groups, and in some cases, it trains these groups on advanced, conventional weapons."

Marking an escalation in tensions that have engulfed the Middle East, the drone attack in Jordan was the first deadly strike against US forces since the conflict began on October 7, when Tehran-backed Hamas invaded Israel, killed 1,200 mostly civilians and took hundreds of hostages. US troops have been attacked more than 160 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since the events of October 7, a flareup aimed at pressuring Israel to cease its offensive in Gaza.

In the wake of the attack, several other Iran-funded groups have intensified attacks on US and Israeli targets in Iraq and Syria while the Houthis of Yemen have been attacking international shipping in the Red Sea. Iranian officials claim that the country has had no active role in the conflict, but the proxies are the brainchild of Iran's Supreme Leader. During 2023, Khamenei met with leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, suggesting top level coordination of the attacks which have triggered the worst violence in the region in years.

Speaking to Jamaran News on Thursday, Falahatpisheh said, "The Russians were looking for a partner in the crime in the Ukraine war, which is why they said they would take drones from Iran."

Iran has provided drones to Russia which have been deployed against infrastructure and civilian targets in Ukraine since October 2022, used in conjunction with missile attacks to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Western nations have sanctioned both individuals and entities implicated in the supply of the kamikaze drones.

Russia has deepened its military collaboration with Iran since launching its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. While Iran initially denied supplying Shahed drones to Russia, it later admitted to providing a limited number before the conflict erupted.

Falahatpisheh, one of the few domestic critics permitted to speak to the press, earlier also expressed concerns that Iran could become a secondary front in Russia's war against Ukraine. Critics have increasingly questioned Russia's reliability as a partner for Iran, particularly regarding nuclear issues and other foreign policy matters.

The Kremlin in November said Russia and Iran were developing their relations, "including in the field of military-technical cooperation.”

According to the report, Iran is now concerned about actions carried out by its proxies in the region. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, responsible for the attack Sunday which killed three US troops and left 47 wounded, has since said they are halting actions as Tehran grows ever more nervous about rising tensions.

CNN further added that Tehran is particularly anxious about Yemeni Houthis’ attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea as they potentially endanger the economic interests of Iran’s allies China and India.

“There is no sense that Tehran’s growing wariness is likely to change its broader strategy of supporting proxy attacks on US and Western targets - although it could signal adjustments around the margins,” CNN quoted US officials as warning.

Following the attack Sunday, US President Joe Biden has been under increasing pressure to retaliate against Iran which, through its proxies, has launched more than 160 attacks on the US since October, in the wake of the Gaza war. The US has been targeted for its support of Israel's right to defend itself in the wake of October 7's Iran-backed Hamas invasion.

On Wednesday, over 60 US lawmakers urged stricter enforcement of Iran’s oil sanctions. In a letter addressed to Biden, House members from both parties called for “immediate action” to prevent the Iranian regime from obtaining “additional financial resources that it can use to continue supporting terrorism.”

Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin have vowed to hold accountable “all” sides who had a part in the deadly Jordan incident.