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Trump speaks to reporters about Russia, Iran and a third term
President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on Sunday night from Air Force One, where he was asked about a third term, ceasefire negotiations with Russia and tariffs on Iran.
Iranian military commanders are considering a preemptive strike on a joint U.S.-U.K. base on the Chagos Island located in the Indian Ocean in an apparent attempt to deter President Donald Trump from launching a military attack on Iran, a report by the Telegraph first said.
“Like any Iranian military threat, the art is to determine what is bluster and what is real,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital when asked about the strategy behind the alleged threats against the U.S. base.
“Deception is a propaganda tool used to bolster deterrence and prevent a conventionally weak regime from having to fight,” he added. “By threatening everywhere, the regime hopes to have to fight nowhere – meaning its revolutionary foreign policy gets to remain uncontested.
A big banner depicting Iran’s supreme leader is placed next to a ballistic missile in Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 26, 2024. (Hossein Beris/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital has not been able to independently confirm the threat of attack on the Diego Garcia base, positioned some 2,400 miles south of Iran, but experts on Iranian security have been sounding the alarm that Tehran likely has, if not direct missile capabilities, options to position its arms that will enable it to hit U.S. strategic interests farther away.
Iran has a “self-imposed” range of roughly 1,200 miles on its ballistic capabilities, though it is suspected that the IRGC has a ballistic strike capability of hitting up to 1,800 miles away using its Khorramshahr-2 medium-range ballistic missile, Ben Taleblu explained in a post on X.
Tehran also has the updated version of the missile known as Khorramshahr-4, also referred to as the Kheibar missile, which is suspected of being able to exceed Iran’s other strike range options, though the extent of its capabilities has not been fully tested.
But even if it is incapable of hitting a U.S. target some 2,400 miles from its most southern border, Iran has proven it is crafty when it comes to expanding its strike range – including through the use of merchant ships and oil tankers converted to warships to expand its long-range strike capabilities.
Even if it is incapable of hitting a U.S. target some 2,400 miles from its most southern border, Iran has proven it is crafty when it comes to expanding its strike range. (Eric Travers/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
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“There’s always the chance of using a foreign-procured container launched cruise missile from even an unconverted tanker or commercial vessel at sea,” Ben Taleblu explained in his post, referring to its use of both Russian and Chinese procured cruise missiles following its war with Iraq in the 1980s.
In addition, Iran could again turn to its close ties to terrorist networks to transfer missile capabilities to war-torn areas like Yemen, which could enable it to strike further south into the Indian Ocean by some 800 miles.
“While all these options would make Iran’s launch platforms, especially at sea, easy targets for a counterstrike, they mean that Tehran does have options to strike further afield than expected,” Ben Taleblu said.
Trump in recent days has increased his threats against Iran and warned there could be direct conflict if it doesn’t stop arming the Houthi terrorist group, or halt its nuclear program.
But it remains unclear at what level the U.S. would respond to a direct attack on its military, which could prove catastrophic for Tehran given its revealed defense capabilities when faced with strikes from Israel.
A protester holds a model of a Houthi missile during a demonstration against Israel’s continued war on the Gaza Strip, and the U.S.-led airstrikes and sanctions against the Houthi group in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 16, 2024. (Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua via Getty Images)
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Iran on Monday also filed a letter of complaint with the United Nations Security Council over Trump’s “reckless and belligerent” threats and described them as “a flagrant violation of international law.”
According to a report by Reuters, Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said Tehran “strongly warns against any military adventurism and will respond swiftly and decisively to any act of aggression or attack by the United States or its proxy, the Israeli regime, against its sovereignty, territorial integrity, or national interests.”
Caitlin McFall is a Reporter at Fox News Digital covering Politics, U.S. and World news.