US Anti-Iran Posturing “Bluster”

A former top aide to ex-US president Barack Obama said the new US administration’s recent hostile posturing vis-A-vis Iran amounts to “bluster”.   Philip Gordon, who was the White House’s coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf region from 2013 to 2015, wrote in an op-ed published in the New York Times on Thursday that the administration of President Donald Trump would find it “so difficult” to turn its threatening words against Iran into action. Trump, a self-admitted non-politician, has surrounded himself with top aides known for their bellicose stances toward Iran. Gordon specifically pointed to recent rhetoric by Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and said he had “set himself and the United States up for either an embarrassing retreat or a risky confrontation”. Flynn said on Wednesday the US was putting Iran “on notice” over its ballistic missile tests. Iran had earlier conducted a successful missile test. Gordon said the US had a limited set of options to respond to the Iranian missile tests. “While Trump administration officials have claimed to have a ‘large range’ of options to choose from in responding more effectively to Iran, the reality is that they do not,” he wrote. Gordon said the Trump administration was “unlikely to find much international support” for any new sanctions against Iran.