CENTCOM Commander: The Islamic Republic Has Turned the Middle East into a 'Center of Crises'

The senior commander of the U.S. Central Command, in a session of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated: "The Islamic Republic has turned the Middle East into a 'center of crises', and the key to deterrence is for Tehran to understand that this behavior has serious consequences for it." General Michael Kurilla added on Thursday, March 8, that "the Islamic Republic has entered the Middle East into crisis by providing military support to Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen, and by operationalizing all its proxy night fighters in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, the region is in the most unstable situation it has seen in the last 50 years." He described Iran's oil sales to China as one of the ways to finance the militias supported by the Islamic Republic and warned of the danger of Tehran becoming a nuclear power, stating: "If the Islamic Republic becomes a nuclear power, the Middle East will change forever." The senior commander of CENTCOM considered the "creation of serious consequences" for Tehran as the key to deterring the destructive actions of the Islamic Republic and emphasized: "Since October 7, the day Hamas carried out a series of attacks against Israel in the Gaza Strip, there have been over 170 attacks on U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq, but the United States has only conducted eight military responses." General Michael Kurilla also referred to the subversive actions of the Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea and the killing of three sailors in their attack on a ship in that sea, stating: "The U.S. economy relies on the safe transit of commercial shipping through the Red Sea, and considering that 30% of all maritime trade is conducted through waterways, the navies of 24 countries are engaged in joint operations to protect container and oil tankers in the Red Sea. However, the continued attacks by the Houthis have forced an increasing number of shipping lines to take longer routes to southern Africa to ensure the safety of their crews and goods, resulting in longer delivery times for consumers and higher prices." He further noted the continuation of Houthi attacks despite naval patrols and airstrikes from Washington and London, calling the group's use of inexpensive drones a particular threat and urged Congress to approve a supplemental budget of $530 million to provide CENTCOM with powerful microwave systems and relatively inexpensive "Coyote" interceptors to counter these drones. The Houthi militants in Yemen, supported by the Islamic Republic, have repeatedly attacked international commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea with missiles and drones under the pretext of supporting the Palestinians since early November. Many of these attacks have been neutralized by U.S. forces or the coalition, and numerous of their bases inside Yemen have been targeted by independent or joint operations of the U.S. military and other U.S. allies. Nevertheless, Houthi leaders have stated that they will not cease attacks on ships until the war in Gaza ends. The Biden administration, which had removed the Houthis from the list of terrorist organizations shortly after taking office in January 2021, placed the group back on the list of "specially designated global terrorists" on February 16, 2023. The British newspaper Telegraph reported on January 10, citing its intelligence sources inside Iran, that the Houthis in Yemen have been trained at the "Khamenei University of Marine Sciences and Technologies" in Zibakenar, Rasht, and that Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, supervises their activities. The change in the approach of the U.S. and Israel towards the Islamic Republic's proxy militants in the region.