CENTCOM Mirrors Naval Blockade With "Iron Gate" for Iran's Borders

US Central Command has announced a new land border task force to complement the effects of the US naval blockade on Iranian ships and ports.

Admiral Cooper, Commander CENTCOM, announced on November 7 the formation of Task Force Iron Gate, a small mixed civilian and military staff working within his headquarters in Tampa, Florida, whose purpose is to coordinate both military and civil agency efforts to prevent the movement of weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illegal revenue streams, both across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea.

Aside from the movement of a very small number of tankers carrying LPG, the naval blockade appears to be completely effective, and is thus shutting out 80% of trade which previously entered Iran by ship, principally through Bandar Abbas. Through bulk volumes alone, this blockade is having immediate impact, principally on the civil economy.

But the naval blockade does not impact financial transactions, and the IRGC is focused on getting high-value, low-volume imports needed by the IRGC’s military units into the country - a sanctions-evading task for which they have developed considerable expertise over the years in order to support proxy militias abroad. This material now needs to be delivered into Iran across the borders for which Task Force Iron Gate has been given oversight responsibility, a task they will no doubt be conducting in close coordination with the US Treasury’s Operation Economic Outcast.

This story was originally published by The Maritime Executive. Read the full story at The Maritime Executive →