Islam Times - McKenzie Accuses Iran of Being Threat to Regional Stability

Islam Times - The Commander of the US Central Command General Kenneth McKenzie claimed that Iran is the biggest threat to stability in West Asia.

Making the remarks in an online meeting, he repeated Americans' baseless claims towards Iran saying: "[the US] priority is deterring Iran’s destabilizing activities, which remains the biggest threat to stability in the Middle East."

According to the US Department of State, he said that: "I believe that our posture in the region has had a deterrent effect on Iran and made it more difficult for them to deny attribution for their malign activities."

"We have achieved that with a robust force posture that includes ships, airpower, and ballistic missile defense capabilities, and of course there are many more things we do in concert with our friends in the region that contribute to that end as well," he claimed.

"We are seeing pressure from Iranian-affiliated groups that want to push us out of Iraq, and the latest manifestation of that has been the use of small unmanned aerial systems or drones," he baselessly claimed.

"Some of them are very small, some are a little bit larger – all can be very lethal. And they are resorting to this technique because they have been unable to force the Government of Iraq to require that we leave. So political pressure has not worked for them; now they’re turning to a kinetic approach. And that is very concerning to me... Nonetheless, the threat is concerning and we will take whatever measures are necessary to defend ourselves," he added.

In earlier remarks, the American commander had claimed that Iran is using Iraq as a proxy battlefield, and its ultimate goal is to oust the United States from Iraq and the region.

He also claimed that there were “heightened threat streams” from Iran during the months leading up to Biden’s election and inauguration, but the United States was able to maintain what he has long-termed a “contested deterrence” during what has become increasingly clear was an unnerving and unpredictable moment.