US Should Put 'Targets In Iran' On The Table – Sen. Graham
Amid continuing Iran-backed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, calls are growing in Washington to zero in on Tehran, the main actor fomenting the Middle East crisis.
Amid continuing Iran-backed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, calls are growing in Washington to zero in on Tehran, the main actor fomenting the Middle East crisis.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) stated in an interview with Iran International's Arash Alaei on Tuesday that the Biden administration should convey to Tehran that the US is willing to consider "targets in Iran" as an option if its proxies persist in attacking American troops and international shipping.
Iran's Yemeni proxy, the Houthis, along with other regional militias, have escalated attacks on American and Israeli targets since the October 7 invasion of Israel by Hamas, another Tehran-backed outfit. The attacks resulted in over 1,200 deaths in a single day, predominantly civilians, and the abduction of more than 240 men, women and children from communities on the Gaza border.
The Houthis' assaults on shipping in the Red Sea have disrupted the free flow of goods, leading the US and its allies to target Houthi boats and missiles aimed at either hijacking or striking commercial vessels. The attacks began after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called for blockading Israel in response to its retaliatory offensive in Gaza to uproot Hamas. The Houthis have vowed to continue attacks until Israel halts its operations in Gaza and warned that it would attack US warships if the militia group itself was targeted.
According to the US military's Central Command, only on Tuesday, US and UK forces shot down 21 drones and missiles fired by Houthis at international shipping in the Red Sea.
Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) told Iran International that he hopes the situation would not escalate and the US would not go to a war with Iran, but the US supports Israel in its war against Hamas, making it a target for Iran's proxies. Answering a question about the European countries’ military support to maintain the maritime security, he said, “Unfortunately, often the United States has to go alone... And it’s the right and thing to do.”
He underlined that as long as Houthis’ threats prevail, “I hope they keep sinking more and more to the bottom of the sea.” Last month, US warships sank three Houthi small boats to protect a commercial vessel from being hijacked. All crew were killed.
Critics have urged the Biden administration to take a more assertive stance toward the Houthis and Iran to stop the attacks, instead of just defensive measures. The US has formed a more than 20-nation coalition to counter the threats, several countries members anonymously due to the sensitive regional tensions.
US Deputy Special Envoy to Iran, Abram Paley, told Iran International this week that when it comes to dealing with Iran, “words are not enough” and action has to be taken. However, so far, Washington has not targeted the source of the Houthi attacks in Yemen.
Richard Goldberg, a National Security Council official from the Trump era and a fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, says the increase in Houthi attacks indicate that “Iran just called Biden’s bluff.”
In an article on New York Post, Goldberg argued that with Tehran closer to nukes, Congress must end Biden’s appeasement with Iran before it is too late. “President Biden’s three years of appeasing Iran has brought the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism closer than ever to developing a nuclear weapon.”
He highlighted that “nothing has been able to disabuse Biden of his almost-religious commitment to appeasement as the only viable path to containing Iran’s myriad threats... Not even assassination plots targeting former US officials, attempts to kidnap Iranian Americans from US soil, Iran-directed attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria, injuring dozens of servicemembers — one critically — or the suicide-drone attacks on US destroyers in the Red Sea.”
Abolishing the hijab on January 17, 1936, was only one aspect of the modernization attempts by Reza Shah Pahlavi the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. He not only freed Iranian women from hijab, but he also paved the way for them to be active members of society as teachers, government officials, nurses, and highly educated professionals.
Later in the dynasty's rule, Iranian women gained the right to vote and run for parliament, preceding many countries in granting women equal rights. However, the modernization of women and changes in their lifestyles were significantly reversed with the ascent of fundamentalist Shiite clerics to power in Iran in 1979.
In a statement released on the occasion, Farah Pahlavi praised Reza Shah for helping Iranian women to shine and “to free them from the dungeons of prejudice." She said the occasion is a landmark in the evolution of Iranian women's modern identity, adding that "many Iranian women today praise the two kings of the Pahlavi dynasty without even having lived in their period." The women, she said, demand Iran's return to the track of progress of that period.
Farah Pahlavi, characterized the current regime of Iran as "evil" and reiterated that "Finally, light will overcome darkness and Iran will be back on the track to freedom, welfare, and progress."
The modernization process initiated by Reza Shah in the 1920s propelled Iran from the depths of the Middle Ages into the modern world. Women became active and productive members of Iranian society in this evolving nation, as people transitioned from carts to trains and enrolled in newly established universities to acquire modern skills, bringing the country in line with the rapidly developing global landscape.
A modern justice system brought an end to clerical rule, limiting their involvement to solemnizing marriages and divorces, which still required registration at the Judiciary offices.
One of the initial actions taken by the Islamic regime after 1979 was the imposition of compulsory hijab on women. This was done to facilitate the suppression of women in society and symbolize the reversal of the modernization efforts initiated during the Pahlavi era.
Later, the clerics established their domination on the judicial system by replacing judges with clergymen who often were not trained to handle judicial cases. The law ceased to exist, and every decision was left to arbitrary ruling by clerics who often came from small villages.
Meanwhile, the destruction of the academic system persists as the regime dismisses university professors and replaces them with regime insiders loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Many officials bestow upon each other the title of "doctor," often without having completed high school. It was even exposed during televised presidential election debates in 2021 that Ebrahim Raisi, who later became president, had only received an elementary education, yet he holds the title of "Ayatollah, Doctor Raisi."
The suppression of women is one of the most elaborate examples of how the Iranian regime works. In early January, Roya Heshmati, an Iranian woman presented a dramatic account of how she was given 74 lashes for not wearing hijab. As her story went viral on social media, the regime tried to deny her account. Interestingly, tens of other women came out to tell their stories about being lashed in previous weeks and months.
Critics say that hijab is the Islamic regime's last trench to defend its existence and Islamic identity as it has lost its Islamic credential after major financial corruptions were disclosed. Nonetheless, the Islamic Republic ruthlessly cracks down on women who defy the compulsory hijab using the ‘morality police’ and the IRGC's Basij militia, while also passing laws to enforce hijab with the motto "Cover or suffer." Particularly, since the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement, many women have been suffering in jail and receiving lashes as religious punishment, although sharia scholars say there is very little if any about compulsory hijab and its punishment in the Quran.
In its threat to the key shipping corridor, which the Houthis say is to block vessels to Israel in support of Hamas amid the Gaza war, so far, oil has been untouched, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
It is plausible, albeit unsupported thus far, that Iran, concerned about the freedom of its own oil shipments toward China, has taken measures to ensure that tankers remain unharmed in the Red Sea, responsible for 12 percent of the world's oil shipments, including those from Saudi Arabia.
Even in Tehran, Iran’s leaders know how ‘sacred’ oil is and to push the world’s leaders into conflict over its shipment, may be a step too far amid an escalating proxy war.
December’s oil and fuel tanker traffic in the Red Sea was stable, even though many container ships have rerouted due to Houthi attacks, according to Reuters data.
But it seems Iran may be capitalizing on the newfound instability. Last week, reports claimed China’s oil trade with Iran has stalled as Tehran withholds shipments and demands higher prices from its top client, tightening cheap supply for the world's biggest crude importer.
The cutback in Iranian oil, which makes up 10% of China's crude imports and hit a record in October, could support global prices and squeeze profits at Chinese refiners.
Independent refineries favor Iranian oil as it’s cheap, and high quality. Iranian Light, the main export grade, trades at a discount of about $13 a barrel.
However, the Houthis’ blockade has driven up shipping costs and insurance premiums, which will have global ramifications, and led to a US-led coalition of more than 20 nations, which are ready to take military action if attacks on global shipping continue.
Some oil companies like BP and Equinor have diverted cargoes to a longer route around Africa but oil continues to flow. "We haven't really seen the interruption to tanker traffic that everyone was expecting," Michelle Wiese Bockmann, a shipping analyst at Lloyd's List, told Reuters.
A daily average of 76 tankers carrying oil and fuel were in the south Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in December, the area close to Yemen that has seen attacks. That was only two fewer than November's average and just three below the average for the first 11 months of 2023, according to data from ship tracking service MariTrace.
Rival tracking service Kpler tracked 236 ships on average daily across all of Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in December, slightly above the 230 daily average in November. The additional cost of sailing around the Cape of Good Hope off Africa rather than via the Red Sea would make voyages to deliver oil less profitable.
According to data from ship analytics firm Marhelm, it costs as much as $85,000 a day to ship oil on Suezmax tankers, which can carry as much as one million barrels. Aframax vessels, which can move 750,000 barrels, cost $75,000 a day.
In a rare attack on oil, last month saw a missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels hit a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen near a key maritime choke point.
The assault on the oil and chemical tanker Strinda in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, was a rare example of oil bearing the brunt of a war which is being waged by Iran’s proxies surrounding Israel’s borders and beyond since October 7’s invasion of Israel by Hamas, killing over 1,200 mostly civilians and taking over 240 hostage.
Consequently, tanker traffic in the south Red Sea region briefly dipped between December 18 and December 22 when the Houthis intensified attacks on vessels, averaging 66 tankers, but movements resumed after, according to MariTrace.
Container ship traffic in the area has fallen more sharply, down 28% in December from November, according to MariTrace. According to LSEG data, several oil majors, refiners and trading houses have continued to use the Red Sea route, perhaps aware of the importance of oil even to the grand puppet master of the Middle East’s proxies.
“Shippers and their customers really want to avoid a schedule disruption. So they are still taking the risk," said Calvin Froedge, founder of Marhelm, speaking to Reuters. He noted that many oil tankers transiting the Red Sea were carrying Russian crude to India, which the Houthis have no interest in attacking.
Other tankers, chartered by trading house Gunvor's unit Clearlake, Indian refiner Bharat Petroleum and Saudi Arabia's Aramco Trading Company, have all navigated the route in recent weeks. Iran’s ally Russia, whose oil supply remains key amidst its own sanctions, also remains India’s largest supplier, and the complexities of disrupting an already fragile relationship does not bode well for Tehran.
Since the second half of December, at least 32 tankers have diverted or transited via the Cape of Good Hope, instead of using the Suez Canal, according to ship tracking service Vortexa.
The tankers that are diverting are mostly those chartered by companies who announced a pause on Red Sea movement, or those operated by US and Israel-linked entities.
For now, Tehran seems to be playing a smart diplomatic game, but how things turn in coming weeks is anyone’s guess as the Houthis continue to recruit tens of thousands of militants in its war on Israel.