President Donald Trump said Sunday that a new task force is in place to disrupt land routes into Iran that the US military says are used for shipments of weapons and illicit materials.
“Task Force Iron Gate is in full force and effect in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Coupled with history’s greatest Naval Blockade, very little gets into, or out of, Iran!” the president posted on his Truth Social platform. US Central Command on Saturday announced the formation of a 20-member team to expand on a US naval blockade of Iranian ports during the eight-month war.
CENTCOM chief Admiral Brad Cooper said in Saturday’s statement that the force “will further constrain Iran’s ability to finance terrorism, rebuild weapons factories, and replenish their military.”
The team of both civilian and military personnel based in Florida would coordinate with US government agencies on “preventing the movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illegal revenue streams across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea,” the statement added. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Washington’s latest bid “will fail” and will not bring about economic collapse in the Islamic republic. “The United States will never be able to impose the economic blockade it is pursuing and proposing under various names and through different plans,” Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi said, according to Fars news agency.
