After United States bombing to Iran’s nuclear facilities At dawn (local time) this Sunday (22), the Tehran regime studies the options to respond to US attacks. A possibility is The closure of the Strait of Ormuz; Another is an offensive against US military basis in the Middle East.
In statements published by state agency Irna, Ali Akbar Velayati, advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the United States “no longer” in the Middle East after attacks on Iranian uranium enrichment plants.
“The United States has attacked the heart of the Islamic world and should await irreparable consequences, because the Islamic Republic does not tolerate any insult or aggression,” the advisor threatened, who said that any foundations used by the US to perform attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities “will be considered legitimate targets.”
According to a Think Tank Advice on Foreign Relations report (CFR), Americans have military facilities in at least 19 different locations in the Middle East – eight of them considered permanent by regional analysts – in countries such as Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi, Syria and United Arabs.
There are about 40,000 US military personnel currently in the Middle East, many in ships in the region, according to CFR.
Think Tank reported that the United States also use bases in DJibuti and Turkey linked to other regional commands of the US forces for their Middle East operations.
Among the American bases in the Middle East are the Al Udeid Air Base, located in Qatar and the largest US military base in the region, and the Iran’s ASAD Air Base, and attacked by Iran in 2020 after the Americans killed the QDS force, Qase Soleimani-response that left military with mild brain lesions, but did not cause deaths.
However, analysts do not believe that Iran will respond with a large -scale direct offensive against US military targets, due to Washington’s much superior power and the exhaustion of Tehran’s military capabilities.
Last week, after Israel began attacks against Iranian military and nuclear facilities, US President Donald Trump said that if Americans are “attacked anyway by Iran, all the strength and power of the US Armed Forces over you at levels never seen before.”
CNN National Security Analyst David Sanger said on Sunday that most likely options for Tehran will be “asymmetrical” measures such as terrorism or cyber attacks.
“I think the body of Islamic revolutionary guard is probably trying to understand which capabilities still remain,” Sanger said, in reference to military infrastructure losses (especially missile stock) that Iran has suffered since it started exchanging attacks with Israel on the 13th.
“I think that [o Irã] It will be a little cautious, and I suspect this will lead us to all the asymmetrical things they can do: cyber attacks, terrorism. I think they will probably look for alternatives where the US cannot simply implement traditional defenses, ”the analyst projected.
