The Pentagon has unveiled a new initiative called "Task Force Iron Gate" aimed at targeting Iranian alternative trade routes and choking off the country's overland military and technology supply networks. According to CENTCOM chief Adm. Bradley Cooper, the task force will strengthen collaboration with US interagency partners to constrain Iran's ability to finance terrorism and replenish its military.
The operation will focus on finding out where weapons systems are coming in and how they can be cut off, as well as how Iran is transporting its energy. The task force will be run by 20 civilian and military personnel and will be based in Tampa, Florida, with significant coordination from the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
However, disrupting overland trade may be easier said than done, given that Iran shares borders with seven countries, including Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan. A Revolutionary Guards spokesman has stated that Washington's aims are impossible, calling the Iron Gate plan "merely a wordplay" that cannot achieve its objectives of imposing severe economic pressure on Iran.
The geographic size of Iran, which dwarfs neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan and is almost half the size of the European continent, also poses a significant challenge to disrupting all overland military or industrial-related trade. With a population of over 90 million people, more than double that of neighboring Iraq, the prospect of significantly disrupting trade is a tall order.