Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of US Central Command, cites reports of “Iran-aligned militia groups across the region withholding payments from their soldiers in order to funnel money back to” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“The Islamic regime is clearly feeling the economic pain and the IRGC is increasingly showing signs of greater desperation as a result,” Cooper says in a video statement touting the US military’s campaign against Iran.
He also stresses: “The Strait of Hormuz is controlled by the United States and our regional partners, not Iran.”
Britain’s Foreign Office says it advises against all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia, after attacks by Yemen’s Houthis on the country.
An informal poll by the UN Security Council places former Costa Rican vice president Rebeca Grynspan as the narrow frontrunner in the race to become the 10th UN secretary-general, two sources close to the process say.
Grynspan, the daughter of two Jewish refugees who fled the Second World War, has maintained a fairly consistent lead in the straw polls.
A diplomat says that Grynspan and the other six candidates to lead the United Nations all received a vote of “discourage,” effectively a veto, from a permanent UN Security Council member in the latest informal poll.
The vote is the first time in six rounds of informal straw polling that Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States anonymously use colored straws to indicate vetoes, while the 10 elected members continue to use plain markers.
The US has blocked Iran from exporting $25 billion worth of oil through a naval blockade and has helped to freeze $350 million worth of cryptocurrency belonging to the Islamic Republic, the commander of US forces in the Middle East says in a video.
Adm. Brad Cooper, who oversees US Central Command, outlines efforts to pressure Iran as it continues to target ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had effectively closed the vital oil shipping corridor after the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, pushing up global oil prices.
Cooper says US forces are helping ships get through the strait, including 400 merchant vessels over the past week, and have helped usher out more than a billion barrels of oil since the war began.
He says more than 20 civilian mariners have been killed by Iran’s attacks against commercial shipping since February.
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