Pentagon reviewing ways to pressure Iran as part of Trump strategy

The Pentagon on Friday said it is reviewing its “entire breadth” of methods to counter Iran after President Trump unveiled a new strategy against the country that included decertifying the nuclear agreement negotiated under the Obama administration.

The review includes security cooperation activities, force posture and plans, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway said in a statement.

{mosads}”We are identifying new areas where we will work with allies to put pressure on the Iranian regime, neutralize its destabilizing influences and constrain its aggressive power projection, particularly its support for terrorist groups and militants,” Rankine-Galloway said Friday.

The statement offered no elaboration on what those new areas might be.

Earlier Friday, Trump bashed the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal and vowed to confront Tehran on a number of other issues, from its ballistic missile tests to its support for groups such as Hezbollah.

Facing a congressionally-mandated deadline to say whether Iran is complying with the nuclear accord, Trump refused to make the certification but did not go as far as withdrawing from the deal.

The Pentagon has long criticized Iran for activities it says are destabilizing to the region, and reiterated eight areas of concern Friday:

— Ballistic missile development and proliferation

— Material and financial support for terrorism and extremism

— Support for Syrian President Bashar Assad and the regime’s “atrocities against the Syrian people.”

— “Unrelenting” hostility toward Israel

— “Consistently threatening” freedom of navigation, especially in the Persian Gulf

— Cyberattacks against the U.S., Israel and U.S. allies and partners in the Gulf

— “Grievous” human rights abuses

— Detention of foreigners, including U.S. citizens, on “specious charges” and without due process.

Defense Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford have said that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal and that staying in the deal is in the U.S. national interest.

But they’ve also said the United States must continue to confront Iran’s other malign activities. 

“The amount of misconduct, I would call it, internationally, whether it be with ballistic missiles, rhetoric, support to terrorists, threats to our friends — Arab and Israel — in the region by Iran are areas where they are open to a great deal, I think, of censure by the international community,” Mattis said at a recent Senate hearing.