US Deploys ‘Task Force Iron Gate’ to Sever Iranian Land Supply Lines

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Sunday the activation of a new military task force dedicated to severing land transit routes into Iran, which U.S. defense officials say are utilized for smuggling weapons and prohibited materials.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) revealed the formation of the 20-member unit on Saturday, describing it as an expansion of the ongoing naval blockade of Iranian ports that has been in effect for eight months.

“Task Force Iron Gate is in full force and effect in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Coupled with history’s greatest Naval Blockade, very little gets into, or out of, Iran!” Trump declared in a post on his Truth Social platform.

CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper stated that the force “will further constrain Iran’s ability to finance terrorism, rebuild weapons factories, and replenish their military.”

Comprising both civilian and military personnel based in Florida, the team will coordinate with various U.S. government agencies to interdict “the movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illegal revenue streams across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea,” according to the command’s statement.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) dismissed the initiative, asserting it “will fail” to precipitate an economic collapse.

“The United States will never be able to impose the economic blockade it is pursuing and proposing under various names and through different plans,” IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi told the semi-official Fars news agency.

Mohebi insisted that Washington would not achieve its goal of exerting “extreme economic pressure to bring about the collapse and disintegration of Iran’s economy,” adding that the U.S. would be “powerless to block” communication channels between Iran and its neighbors.

CENTCOM claimed the existing naval blockade on Iranian ports has “prevented Iran from exporting more than $25 billion in crude oil.”

Last August, the administration launched what it termed an “economic asphyxiation” campaign designed to strangle Iran’s already struggling economy. Those measures followed Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global oil shipments, where Iranian forces have routinely targeted vessels attempting to transit without authorization.

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