The United States has called on Iran to reduce the tension in the Middle East that Tehran and the entities it supports in the region have inflamed in recent weeks.
Iran supports a litany of terrorist organizations, militias, and rebel groups in the Middle East that have repeatedly attacked U.S. troops and U.S. interests in the region dating back to the early days of Israel's war against Hamas. The militia groups Iran supports in Iraq and Syria have carried out over 100 attacks against U.S. forces in those countries that are there to continue the defeat of the Islamic State's campaign, according to Fox News, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen have limited commercial transit in the Red Sea, through which roughly 10%-15% of global trade routinely passed before their drone and ballistic missile attacks.
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"As we are driving to stabilize a region, Iran is raising tensions by continuing to support terrorist groups and malicious attacks by these Iranian proxies who threaten the region and risk a broader conflict," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday. "Of course, the United States does not seek war. And we urgently call on Iran to take steps to deescalate."
Austin announced a coalition of willing countries to protect merchant vessels, dubbed “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” from the Houthi attacks, which will fall under the anti-piracy naval Task Force 153 and include warships from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles, and Spain.
Even with the announcement of the task force, Mohammed Albukhaiti, a member of the organization’s ruling council, told the Washington Post, "Our war is a moral war, and therefore, no matter how many alliances America mobilizes, our military operations will not stop."
Former U.S. Central Command leader Gen. Joseph Votel, who led CENTCOM from 2016 to 2019, told the Washington Examiner that the U.S. needs to work diplomatically to reduce the tension but said the military should be ready in case it comes to that.
"There are people that we have relationships with that ought to be communicating very, very clearly to them that we recognize they are responsible for these groups, and that they will be held accountable for their actions," he said. "So we need to be working in the diplomatic space. We need to work in the information space and make sure we tie all this very clearly back to the Iranians, and then we need to be prepared to act in the military space if that is what's called for."
"Iran is definitely behind" the Houthi attacks against commercial vessels, Votel added, noting, "They're getting most of their equipment, certainly these UAVs and missile systems and assistance and advice and everything, from Iran. That's been going on for a long time. They use a variety of different mechanisms."
The U.S. military has launched a couple of iterations of strikes against the facilities used by the militias in Iraq and Syria but has not responded to the repeated Houthi attacks, which has resulted in some criticism from retired military leaders who believe the military should respond more forcefully.
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"We have to strike back at the Houthis and get this behavior back in control," Votel added.
Iran has long sought to establish a “land bridge” from Iran across Iraq and Syria to Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea.