U.S. Officials Tell Reuters:

U.S. Carried Out Cyber Terrorism Against Iran

Date: 16 October 2019 - 22:21

News ID: ۷۱۸۰۸

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The United States carried out a secret cyber operation against Iran in the wake of the Sept. 14 attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, Reuters reported on Wednesday citing two unnamed U.S. officials.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the operation took place in late September and took aim at Tehran’s ability to spread "propaganda”.
One of the officials said the strike affected physical hardware, but did not provide further details.
Asked about Reuters reporting on Wednesday, Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Muhammad Javad Azari-Jahromi said: "They must have dreamt it,” Fars news agency reported.
Reuters said the U.S. strike appears limited against Iran this year after the downing of an American drone in June.
Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed responsibility for the Sept. 14 attack on the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, but the United States has been adamant to blame it on Iran, apparently out of fear that the ineffectiveness of American security systems based in the kingdom to fend off such a massive operation by an apparently rat-tag group may prompt the Saudis to think twice about relying on U.S. arms supplies.
Publicly, the Pentagon has responded by sending thousands of additional troops and equipment to bolster Saudi defenses - the latest U.S. deployment to the region this year – leaving it to the kingdom’s rulers to foot the bill.
Pentagon chief Mark Esper announced the deployment of two squadrons of F-15s, other aircraft to support them, and Patriot and THADD missile defenses as well as military personnel to support them.
Together with the 200 forces to Saudi Arabia announced last month, the deployment totaled about 3,000 troops.
"Good ally,” U.S. President Donald Trump said on his way to a rally in Louisiana. "Saudi Arabia at my request has agreed to pay us for everything we are doing to help them. That's a first. We appreciate that,” he said.
The Pentagon on Wednesday declined to comment about the cyber strike.
"As a matter of policy and for operational security, we do not discuss cyberspace operations, intelligence, or planning,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Elissa Smith.
According to Reuters, the U.S. government views cyber strikes as a less-provocative option below the threshold of war.
James Lewis, a cyber expert with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, however, noted that it may not be possible to deter Iran with even conventional military strikes.
Tensions in the Persian Gulf have escalated sharply since May 2018, when Trump withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Tehran that put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the easing of sanctions.
Last week, Tehran said an Iranian tanker was hit by rockets in the Red Sea and warned that there would be consequences.
On Wednesday, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said the occupying regime Israel, the U.S., and Saudi Arabia might be behind the "cowardly” attack to which the Islamic Republic "will definitely give a crushing response”.
A senior Iranian parliamentarian said the country plans to send evidence from the attack to the United Nations.
"A film shot by cameras installed on the tanker shows that the attack was carried out by the U.S., the Zionist regime and the Al Saud,” said Abolfazl Hassanbeigi, a member of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.
"Certainly, this sinister triangle was trying to show that they can hit the Islamic Republic,” he added.