Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the U.S. Central Command said that his overall operational assessment of the war is that the Iranians are “operating in a sign of desperation.
“At the beginning of the conflict, you saw large volumes in the dozens of drones and missiles. You no longer see that. It’s all one or two at a time,” the commander told the London-based Iran International opposition outlet in his first interview since “Operation Epic Fury” began on Feb. 28.
The second sign of desperation, he continued, was that Iran in the last couple of weeks has pivoted from attacking military targets to civilian targets.
“They’ve attacked civilian targets very deliberately, more than 300 times,” he noted.
Regarding Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, causing global energy prices to rise, Cooper said that the waterway “is physically open to transit. The reason that ships are not transiting right now is because the Islamic Republic is shooting at them with drones and missiles.”
The U.S.'s job is to decrease the regime navy’s ability to attack shipping, “and we’re getting after that every single day,” he added.
The admiral said that the U.S. military is not only focused on Iran’s existing threats but on its manufacturing capacity to post future threats, both in terms of the drones and missiles as well as the navy.”
Asked whether Israel was assisting in securing the safe passageway through the strait, Cooper replied, “We’re working in close cooperation throughout the country on those same military objectives.”
He added that the new conditions being established in the Persian Gulf will likely help in creating a multinational framework for transit in the region.
He addressed the Iranian regime, saying that it could “stop the war right now if they chose to do so. … My second message is they need to stop putting the wonderful Iranian people at risk by firing missiles and drones from inside populated area. I’ve seen this with my own eyes.”
There will be a “clear signal [for the Iranian people] at some point, as the President has indicated, for you to be able to come out,” Cooper said.
