Navy Chief: ‘Crushing Response’ Can Be Repeated

Date: 24 June 2019 - 21:57

News ID: ۶۷۳۹۲

TEHRAN (Dispatches) — Iran threatened additional drone attacks against the U.S. after downing of a sophisticated RQ-4A Global Hawk near the Strait of Hormuz last week.
Iran's naval commander, Rear Adm. Hussein Khanzadi issued a warning to Washington that Tehran is capable of shooting down other American spy drones that violate Iranian airspace. Khanzadi spoke Monday during a meeting with a group of defense officials in Iran.
"We confidently say that the crushing response can always be repeated, and the enemy knows it,” Khanzadi was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency.
U.S. President Donald Trump initially said Iran had made a "very big mistake" and that it was "hard to believe" that shooting down the drone last Thursday was not intentional. But he also said over the weekend that he appreciated Iran's decision to not shoot down a manned U.S. spy plane carrying 30 people.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has blamed the United States' "interventionist military presence" for fanning the flames.
The New York Times said American intelligence and military officers are working on additional clandestine plans to counter Iran in the Persian Gulf, pushed by the White House to develop new options that could help deter Tehran without escalating tensions into a full-out conventional war.
According to current and former officials, cited by the newspaper, the goal is to develop operations similar to the cyberattacks conducted on Thursday.
Officials did not provide specifics about the secret operations under consideration by the White House. But they could include a wide range of activities such as additional cyberattacks, clandestine operations aimed at disabling boats, and covert operations inside Iran aimed at fomenting more unrest, it said. The United States might also look for ways to divide or undermine the effectiveness of Iranian allies, officials said.
The CIA has longstanding secret plans against Iran, the Times said. Senior officials, it said, have discussed with the White House options for expanded covert operations by the agency, as well as plans to step up existing measures to counter Iran, according to current and former officials.
One former American military commander said there was a range of options that the Pentagon and the CIA could pursue that could keep Iran off balance but that would not have "crystal-clear attribution” to the United States.
The types of responses the United States could undertake are broad if the United States was willing to use the same tactics that Iran has mastered, said Sean McFate, a professor at the National Defense University and the author of "The New Rules of War.”
"If we want to fight back, do it in the shadows,” he said.
McFate said the United States would create an incentive for mercenary forces to take on Hezbollah and other resistance movements. American intelligence forces also could find new ways to assist protests against the Iranian government. Such efforts could include spreading information, either embarrassing truths or deliberate false rumors, aimed at undermining the support that Tehran’s elites have for Iran’s leaders, he said. The United States could also look at ways to make protests by Iran’s labor movement more effective at weakening the government, the New York Times said.