GOP lawmaker: Obama in denial over Iran’s role in Yemen

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) slammed the White House on Wednesday for refusing to acknowledge it deployed a U.S. aircraft carrier to the Gulf of Aden in response to Iran’s support for Houthis rebels in Yemen.  

“The U.S. Navy is the most effective instrument of power projection in history, and its deployment off the coast of Yemen is an important signal of America’s resolve to prevent further Iranian efforts to destabilize the Arabian Peninsula,” said Forbes, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee, in a statement.  

{mosads}”Unfortunately, as has so often been the case, this White House refuses to speak candidly with the world even about the deployment of an American aircraft carrier,” he said. “Even when it does the right thing, the Administration fails to communicate its intentions to the world.”

The U.S. deployed an aircraft carrier on Sunday after Iran sent a flotilla of nine cargo ships, some carrying weapons, to the Gulf of Aden in what officials believe could be an attempt to resupply the Houthis.

However, the White House has so far has avoided saying whether the deployment of the carrier was in response to the Iranian flotilla.

“The principal goal of this operation is to maintain freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said on Tuesday. 

President Obama reiterated that message during an interview Tuesday night with MSNBC, saying the deployment was “to make sure that we maintain freedom of navigation.” 

The White House also will not say whether it would interdict the ships it suspects are carrying weapons for the Houthis.  

“We’re monitoring this closely. We have a range of abilities, but we’re not going to predict what will happen. Our hope is that this can de-escalate,” communications director Jen Psaki said Wednesday on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”

At the same time, the administration has warned Iran not to supply Houthis with weapons and said it was “serious” about enforcing a new U.N. arms embargo on arms to the Houthis.  

“We’re not sending them obscure messages; we send them very direct messages about it,” Obama said.  

But Forbes said the White House is refusing to acknowledge the deployment in response to Iran “in its desperation to get any nuclear deal with Iran.” 

The U.S. and five other nations are negotiating with Iran to roll back its nuclear program, which they suspect is to build a nuclear weapon, in exchange for sanctions relief. The negotiations are scheduled to end June 30. 

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that she hoped the president’s warning would be receieved, but that she wasn’t optimistic.

“There’s a lot of land between what he says and what he actually does,” she said Wednesday on CNN’s “Newsroom.” “I think that while we negotiate this weak nuclear deal, Iran is playing us like fools so they take advantage of this and that’s why they are doing these military operations,” she said. 

The White House said Wednesday it hoped a Saudi Arabia announcement of a halt in its air campaign against the Houthis would deescalate the situation.

However, bombing and fighting on the ground between the Houthi rebels and pro-government forces continued Wednesday. 

“Obviously, the job is not done. There’s remaining instability in the region, in Yemen,” Psaki said later on CNN’s “New Day.” 

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. And we’re going to be doubling down and continuing to work on that with our partners around the world,” she said.