The U.S. military is setting its eyes on combating state sponsor of terrorism Iran as the war against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) dwindles in the Middle East, reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
According to the Journal, “The Trump administration is turning its focus to what it sees as a bigger threat: Iran.”
WSJ suggests the United States may use the estimated 2,000 American troops it has deployed to Syria to repel Iran’s expansion across the Middle East.
“Our leadership has set as an objective not to allow Iran and its proxies to be able to establish a presence in Syria that they can use to threaten our allies or us in the region,” an unnamed senior U.S. administration official told the Journal. “There are different ways to implement that, and we are still working through them.”
Citing anonymous U.S. officials, the Journal reports that Iran has capitalized on the U.S.-led coalition’s focus to annihilate ISIS to increase its influence in Syria.
Military support from Iran and Russia has allowed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to turn the tide of his country’s civil war in his favor.
“Administration officials estimate that Tehran and its allies now provide 80% of the fighters for President Bashar al-Assad’s depleted regime there,” reveals the Journal. “By some estimates, there are 125,000 Iranian forces currently in Syria.”
The fall of ISIS has presented an opportunity for Shiite Tehran to seize control of supply routes through Syria—between Iran and Lebanon—that had been controlled by the Sunni terrorist group. READ MORE
