Tehran wants retribution after the United States bombed several Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend and has several avenues of exacting it, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran expert, Benham Ben Taleblu.
Iran could launch missiles against United States assets in the Middle East, attack through proxies, activate terrorist agents in the U.S., or leverage relationships with transnational criminal organizations to attempt high-profile attacks or assassinations, according to Taleblue, the senior Iran program director and a senior fellow at the foundation.
“Make no mistake, they still want to wash away blood with blood,” Taleblu told The Daily Wire.
U.S. bombers dropped payloads on three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend: Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei put out a statement after the attack accusing the United States of “colluding” with Israel and expressing Iran’s determination “to defend its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security and people by all necessary means.”
For roughly 15 years, Iran has cultivated relationships with transnational gangs to murder targets in the United States, according to Taleblu.
“The Iranians have tried to kill – on U.S. soil – the Saudi ambassador by working with Mexican drug cartels. They’ve tried to go after a journalist, a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin in New York, by working with, I think it was an Eastern European mafia. And they’ve tried to go after others by even using a Canadian biker gang,” Taleblu said.
Threats against President Donald Trump from Iran have surged in recent years since he greenlit the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. In November, the Justice Department announced charges against an Iranian man in connection with a plot to murder the then-president-elect.
In addition to organized violence, federal, state, and local law enforcement should look out for potential lone wolf terrorists, as well, according to Taleblu.
Abroad, Iran may be able to tap into terrorist proxy networks, though its most lethal proxies – Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen – have been gutted in military operations by Israel and the United States in recent months.
“Some of them are called amateur jobs, but the Islamic Republic only needs to get one of them right to be able to land a blow,” said Taleblu. “And given that they’ve shown a real capability to do anything from lone wolf attacks to proxy attacks to work with these transnational criminal cutouts, it makes the job of law enforcement and the national security apparatus” much more difficult.
Many United States assets in the Middle East are under direct threat from Iran. While Israel has decimated Iran’s medium range missiles, Tehran has stockpiles and launchers for shorter-range, more precise munitions that could hit U.S. sites in Iraq, for instance.
“Infrastructure that Washington has all around the southern part of the Persian Gulf could be struck potentially by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Taleblu.
In the weeks leading up to the strike, the United States has taken precautions against a potential strike at military and diplomatic sites across the Middle East. Over a week ago, the United States began moving nonessential personnel and American families out of the Middle East because of tensions between Iran and Israel.
Trump has also moved military assets around. Roughly 40,000 American troops are currently stationed in the region with two carrier strike groups and several fighter squadrons.
Iran’s own military has been decapitated at the highest levels because of targeted strikes by Israel on Tehran’s top military officers and nuclear personnel.
“The regime, just like its proxies, is down, but it is not out,” said Taleblu. “We’ve seen them be able to, again, enter negotiations with a weak hand, leave with a strong hand, be able to play to its adversaries’ fear of a wider war, be able to draw on its adversaries’ concern for restraint, be able to prey on its adversaries’ desire for a more responsible and stable Middle Eastern order.
“Simply by being a more disruptive actor, even with the capabilities and even with the persons that they have still at the helm, they can still do damage,” he continued. “When you’re looking at a political system like the Islamic Republic of Iran, regardless of the musical chairs with the commanders, ‘Supreme Leader’ is a title meant to be taken rather literally. An Iran Supreme Leader, an 86-year-old ideological man is currently hosting, or holding, I should say, a nation of 91-plus million Iranians hostage.”