Key Points and Summary – Following the direct US military strikes on its nuclear facilities over the weekend, Iran is weighing its military options and has vowed retaliation, with officials warning of “all-out war” and freeing its forces to take “any action” against US interests.
-Potential responses range from direct attacks on US troops in the region to asymmetric warfare, such as closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which would devastate global oil markets.
-Other options include reactivating proxy forces and launching major cyberattacks against US infrastructure.
-While President Trump has called for peace, Iran’s leaders have signaled that the US has now “entered the war clearly and directly.”
Iran and America Now At War?
Over the weekend, the U.S. carried out a strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, something that it had never done before, despite decades of concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The U.S. delivered the strikes, following weeks of bombardment by Israel, which Iran has returned.
In his Truth Social post on Saturday night, after the strikes, Trump declared, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”
Trump has long vowed to get involved in protracted foreign wars, and likely sees the strike on the nuclear sites as a one-shot involvement that will not involve long-term commitments by U.S. forces, along the lines of when he ordered a strike on Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in early 2020, during Trump’s first term.
However, it’s unlikely that Iran will see things that way and will at least attempt to retaliate in some way against the U.S. for the strikes.
The question is, how would they do it?
The Question of Retaliation
According to Al Jazeera, Iran is “weighing its military options,” following the attack on its nuclear facilities.
“The criminal US must know that in addition to punishing its illegitimate and aggressive offspring, the hands of Islam’s fighters within the armed forces have been freed to take any action against its interests and military, and we will never back down in this regard,” Abdolrahim Mousavi, the newly named chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said in a statement released after the attacks on the nuclear sites.
He added that the U.S. had “entered the war clearly and directly.”
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, another Iranian government spokesman, characterized the strike by the U.S. as a move to “revive the dying Zionist regime,” but would actually “expand the scope of the legitimate and various targets of Iranian armed forces, and create the grounds for expanding war in the region.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, posted a speech on X this week, stating that Israel “must be punished and it is being punished right now.”
Iran has begun by continuing to fire at Israel, including “dozens of one-way drones with anti-fortification explosive warheads,” Al Jazeera reported.
Iran’s Options
What can Iran do to retaliate against the U.S.? CNN looked at that question after the U.S. strikes.
These include the possibility of Iran striking U.S. interests in the Middle East. Many of Iran’s proxies in the Middle East, like Hezbollah, have been weakened in recent years. And the U.S. still has some troops in Iraq and other parts of the region, whom Iran has sought to strike in the past.
Iran could also affect the worldwide oil market by cutting off access to the Strait of Hormuz, a key checkpoint for global oil shipping. Doing so would deliver a price shock to global oil markets.
Also, according to CNN, Iran will almost certainly race to rebuild its nuclear weapons capability.
“Trump just guaranteed that Iran will be a nuclear weapons state in the next 5 to 10 years,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, said on X, as reported by CNN. “Particularly if the regime changes.”
Blocking the Strait
Per CNBC, Iran’s parliament has backed the idea of blocking the Strait, although doing so would likely alienate Iran from the rest of the world.
Doing so, however, would potentially antagonize China.
“[China’s] national security interest really would value stabilization of the situation and a de-escalation enabling safe flows of oil and gas through the strait,” Clayton Seigle, senior fellow for Energy Security and Climate Change at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC.
Striking Directly
Another option would be for Iran to somehow directly attack the United States. It doesn’t have the capability of doing so with missiles, although Iran can utilize cyberattacks, or possibly even terror attacks within the U.S.
About the Author
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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