The top U.S. Navy admiral in the Middle East region said Friday Iran has shown no signs of moving to a less aggressive military posture following the September 14 attacks on key Saudi Arabian oil facilities.
“I don’t believe that they’re drawing back at all,” Vice Admiral Jim Malloy, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, told Reuters.
Several U.S. allies have joined officials in Washington in accusing Tehran of carrying out the attacks.
Iran has denied any involvement, and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — involved in a brutal war against a Saudi-led military coalition — have said they carried out the drone and cruise missile strikes.
The vice admiral said that he constantly monitors the movements of Iranian cruise and ballistic missiles “whether they’re moving to storage, away from storage.”
“I get a briefing of movements on a daily basis and then assessments as to what that could mean,” he said in the interview.
The Pentagon announced last week that it is deploying about 200 U.S. support personnel and several defensive systems to Saudi Arabia that will be focused on air and missile defense. President Trump has said he is displaying “strength” in his measured response so far to the attack.
• Lauren Toms can be reached at lmeier@washingtontimes.com.
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