WASHINGTON, November 7 (Aalimi Nation) – The United States military's Central Command (CENTCOM) has set up a new unit, Task Force Iron Gate, to disrupt what it says is Iran's use of land routes to move advanced weapons, according to a statement from the command.
The task force is intended to stop the movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials and illicit revenue across Iran's land borders and the Caspian Sea. It will coordinate with other US government agencies rather than act alone, the command said.
CENTCOM said the unit has about 20 civilian and military personnel and is based in Tampa, Florida. Its creation was ordered by the command's chief, Admiral Brad Cooper, who presented it as building on the existing naval blockade, according to the command's account.
No timeline, rules of engagement or details of how land interdiction would be carried out were given in the material released, and there was no mention of the legal basis for such action.
The blockade, announced in July, covers Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM said strict maritime enforcement remains in place for vessels entering or leaving those ports. The command also claimed that the blockade has kept Iran from exporting more than $25 billion worth of crude oil in recent months.
That figure is CENTCOM's own claim. No independent verification of the amount has been found, and the Iranian government's response to the announcement was not available at the time of writing.
The announcement comes amid a continuing confrontation in the Gulf region. Live coverage on Sunday described reports of explosions on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz and in the Iranian cities of Jask, Sirik and Bandar Abbas, all attributed to Iranian state media, which gave no casualty figures. Separately, the United Arab Emirates said it had rescued 22 people from a cargo ship that caught fire, after a report from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that two oil tankers had struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Those accounts have not been independently confirmed.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has meanwhile said it is building underground sites for weapons production and storage.
Officials in Washington have not said how the unit would affect any efforts to reach a peace deal.
Qatar has urged the two sides not to wait to reach a peace deal, according to Sunday's live coverage of the conflict. Oil markets, meanwhile, ended the week lower on hopes that tensions in West Asia might ease, according to market reports.
CENTCOM has not said when the task force will begin operations, which countries along Iran's borders it expects to work with, or what steps it may take against shipments on land or across the Caspian Sea. Iran has not yet responded publicly to the new unit.
