The US could “directly attack” Iran’s oil fields to starve Tehran of cash if the Ayatollah continues to destabilise the Middle East, a defence expert has warned.
Speaking to Daily Express US, defence expert Nicholas Drummond said he believes the US has warned Iran to back down as proxy groups across the region attack Israel, US military assets and even commercial shipping.
He said: “I think the US has said very clearly to Iran. If you trigger Hezbollah [in Lebanon] to attack Israel from the north, we will take direct action against you.
“I’m pretty sure that they’ve been threatened with that. The US could bomb Iranian oil fields which would destroy their oil income and oil revenues overnight.
“I think the US is very aware of what Iran is doing and what Iran’s agenda is. They’ve made it very, very clear that they will punish Iran, if it triggers more aggression in the region and, of course, Iran’s very angry about that. That’s why I think it’s received those warnings.”
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He said: “Iran, very clearly equipped, and trained Hamas to conduct those atrocities against Israel. In doing so, it knew it would destabilise a region.
“It knew Israel would react in the way it reacted by going into Gaza. It knew Israel would kill people in Palestine as part of that operation. And so it was all a deliberate attempt to trigger Israel and to destabilise Israel.
“In doing that, Iran didn’t [care] about the poor Palestinians there. And so it used them as pawns to achieve its own political goals. So you can criticise Israel, all you like for defending itself, but the real villain here is Iran.”
The war in the Levant has spilt over across the region. The US and UK have already directly intervened by attacking Houthi positions in Yemen. The US has also stuck targets in Syria and Iraq in response to attacks on its troops in those countries.
Tensions have continued to rise amid the Israel-Hamas war which, as of now, appears to have no end in sight.
