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Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-885839
Ex-U.S. Military Official: Iran Is "Playing Poker"
(Jerusalem Post) Danielle Greyman-Kennard - U.S. Vice-Admiral (ret.) Robert Harward, former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday that Iran's sending a drone that approached the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea and Iranian gunboats that approached a U.S.-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz last week is likely just Tehran "grasping at the last straw." "If they were to escalate and [employ] kind of their last remaining spear, be it missiles, be it strategic or tactical, dependent on the range, that would really bring escalation to the point that Iran is not prepared to deal with...so they're playing poker." He said the U.S. could "provide communications and intelligence to those who are opposing the regime, could provide them arms, could provide them other means that are more covert or below the line, kind of like the way Iran has been addressing [the U.S.] asymmetrically. I think this administration has those same sort of options on the table, and I'd be surprised if they're not already pursuing them to influence the regime, much less lead to regime change." "Past operations - the Israeli strike on the nuclear facilities with U.S. support and U.S. participation, the neutering of Iran's surface-to-air missile threats - illustrate how weak the regime is."