Tensions Grow Between the US and Iran

by TMO Staff

Tensions have grown between the United States and Iran late May with critical threats levied by senior officials in Tehran. These threats follow reports of President Donald Trump considering deployment of 10,000 new troops to the region, U.S. News reported.

Since former President Carter’s decision to sever diplomatic relations with Iran, in April of 1980, aggressive dialogues and growing tensions have often existed between the two countries over the years.

However, tensions have recently increased, “Our hands are on the trigger and we are firmly prepared to annihilate any aggressor and greedy eyes against the Islamic Iran,” Chief of Staff to the Iranian Armed Forces Maj. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri said last week, according to a local Irani news agency.

“The new conditions of countering the U.S. arrogant and pharaonic threat invite all the Iranians to enter the fields of jihad, full alert, and mobilization of more power,” he added.

Bagheri made his statement this past week on the occasion of the anniversary of the liberation of Khorramshahr on May 24, 1982 during the Iran-Iraq war. Iran has always alleged U.S’s involvement and support for Iraq’s invasion then of Iran.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told the Washington Post,  the deployment of troops to the Middle East is for defensive purposes. “Our job is deterrence. This is not about war,” he said Thursday.

“We have a mission there in the Middle East: freedom of navigation, counterterrorism in Syria and Iraq, defeating al-Qaeda in Yemen, and the security of Israel and Jordan.”

However with the White House deploying more troops in the Middle East and President Trump also approving the sale of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the tensions between the countries seem more concerning than before to some political analysts and members of the Congress.

Following the President’s recent decisions aimed for the Middle East, Bob Menedez of New Jersey released a statement, “In trying to explain this move, the Administration failed to even identify which legal mechanism it thinks it is using, described years of malign Iranian behavior but failed to identify what actually constitutes an emergency today, and critically, failed to explain how these systems, many of which will take years to come online, would immediately benefit either the United States or our allies and thus merit such hasty action.”

Many fear the weapons may be used against civilians in Yemen by Saudi-led forces, BBC News said. Saudi Arabia’s human rights record has been greatly criticized by members of Congress, the recent condemnation has been for Sadia Arabia’s role in the Yemen conflict and for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

“I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the Trump Administration has failed once again to prioritize our long term national security interests or stand up for human rights, and instead is granting favors to authoritarian countries like Saudi Arabia,” Menedez added.