The Iranian government is flexing its military power via a series of recent announcements as questions continue to grow as to whether the United States is doing enough to push back against the regime\u2019s increased attacks on American interests in the aftermath of the Hamas terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Iran unveiled a new sophisticated warship for its Caspian Sea fleet that it says will be \u2018a \u2018sea of peace and friendship\u2019 and said Iran\u2019s naval power there will serve \u2018peace, security of commercial fleets, confronting terrorists and probable incidents in the future.\u2019 The announcement comes shortly after the country claimed to have developed a new hypersonic ballistic missile, allegedly expanding one of the most dangerous military capabilities at their disposal.<\/p>\n
\u2018Iran is continuing to try to signal that its military industries are impervious to and cannot be set back by sanctions, hence the pomp and circumstance here,\u2019 Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital about the new Iranian warship. \u2018Of note, the new vessel is to be deployed in the Caspian Sea, a sign of the regime\u2019s increased securitization of the world\u2019s largest lake and a major conduit for the drone trade with Russia.\u2019<\/p>\n
As Iran announces military advancements, Iranian-backed proxies have carried out dozens of attacks on American bases and interests in the Middle East since the Iran-backed Hamas terror organization attacked Israel, including in international waters where Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels have fired upon and hijacked ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.<\/p>\n
\u2018Iran\u2019s evolving anti-access, area-denial capabilities are likely to continue to trickle to proxies like the Houthis in Yemen, which already boast anti-ship cruise and anti-ship ballistic missiles,\u2019 Taleblu said.<\/p>\n
The increased attacks, along with what many have said is a lack of proportionate response by the United States, have caused increased criticism from top Republicans in Congress.<\/p>\n
\u2018Since Joe Biden took office, Iran has attacked American positions in the Middle East over 150 times, with over 70 of those attacks in the last month,\u2019 Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas told Fox News Digital on Monday. \u2018Iran and its proxies know they can get away with this because the Biden administration rarely hits back. And when it does respond, the strikes only target empty warehouses or inconsequential proxy forces in Iraq or Syria.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018President Biden seems to be going out of his way to avoid targeting Iranians or the resources Iran holds dear. This weakness only invites more aggression from Iran and will continue unless the administration sends a clear message these attacks are unacceptable.\u2019<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and National Security Council for comment but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n
\u2018You\u2019ve seen some saying there should perhaps be a more robust response to these ongoing attacks, whether it\u2019s from Iranian-backed militias in Syria or Iraq, whether it\u2019s the Houthis,\u2019 a reporter asked National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby at a Monday press briefing. \u2018Is there any thought of changing up how that\u2019s done?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to get into [the] business to telegraphing our punches,\u2019 Kirby replied. \u2018We\u2019ve responded forcefully against the threats to our forces in Iraq and Syria and now our forces in the Gulf region, the Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden. We\u2019ll continue to do that as appropriate.\u2019<\/p>\n
Taleblu told Fox News Digital that \u2018while some may be tempted to write off any Iranian military changes as bluster,\u2019 the \u2018administration cannot afford to ignore the overall trajectory of Iran\u2019s military programs.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Greater capability will generate greater risk tolerance and testing of red lines by Tehran. That is something no U.S. president [can] afford to ignore.\u2019<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital\u2019s Peter Aitken contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n
The Iranian government is flexing its military power via a series of recent announcements as questions continue to grow as to whether the United States is doing enough to push back against the regime\u2019s increased attacks on American interests in the aftermath of the Hamas terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7. On Monday, Iran <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}