During a press conference on August 28, U.S Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that “Iran has been put on notice” for what he called mischief throughout the region.
The press conference, held at the Pentagon, was also attended by the chairman of the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, who reacted to claims by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that it is fully in control of the Persian Gulf. “For decades, our forces have been postured in the Gulf to ensure freedom of navigation and will continue to do that,” he said.
Mattis listed the issues that the United States has with Iran’s activities in the region, including “what they are doing with Assad, the threats about the Straight of Hormuz, the support for the Houthis with the missiles that are being fired into Saudi Arabia.”
Mattis acknowledged that the United States has noticed there was “less willingness to be confrontational” from Iran’s side. The former Marine general also acknowledged that “our problem is not with Iran; it’s with the Iranian regime leadership.”
