DI 
ALERT:

 

America Launches War on Iran!!!

June 22, 2008

 

Israel’s military maneuvers

+

House Bill (H. CON. RES. 362)

Calling for Blockade of Iran

=  War.

What to do: Read (all) the following and then call Washington and raise hell!! 

 

Call House and Senate…And Pelosi
The damn thing has a Senate counterpart.
A  free Congressional switchboard number:

1-866-340-9281

 

By: DI Foreign Policy Editor, Dusty Schoch, with a PS from Leonard Carrier,

       DI In-House Historian and Philosopher.

 

 

 

 While Americans  and their media focus on Presidential Election, our fascist neocon leaders are again (as in 2004) Wagging the Dog…

to distract us from the true tale: War is Being Declared on Iran…and

we the people are doing nothing to stop it!!!

 

We recommend you read first this first “act of war” – what your Congress is about to do with its –again, pre-emptive and unilateral act of war in the Middle East…. The full proposed legislative bill is printed here…check out subparagraph (3) for the blockade provisions.

 

Then read the comments of Dusty and Len which follow.

 

 

House Resolution Calls for Naval Blockade against Iran

America’s powerful pro-Israel lobby pressures the US Congress

 

by Andrew W Cheetham

 

Global Research, June 18, 2008

 

A US House of Representatives Resolution effectively requiring a naval blockade on Iran seems fast tracked for passage, gaining co-sponsors at a remarkable speed, but experts say the measures called for in the resolutions amount to an act of war.

H.CON.RES 362 calls on the president to stop all shipments of refined petroleum products from reaching Iran. It also “demands” that the President impose “stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains and cargo entering or departing Iran.”

Analysts say that this would require a US naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

Since its introduction three weeks ago, the resolution has attracted 146 cosponsors. Forty-three members added their names to the bill in the past two days.

In the Senate, a sister resolution S.RES 580 has gained co-sponsors with similar speed. The Senate measure was introduced by Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh on June 2. In little more than a week’s time, it has accrued 19 co-sponsors.

AIPAC’s Endorsement

Congressional insiders credit America’s powerful pro-Israel lobby for the rapid endorsement of the bills. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) held its annual policy conference June 2-4, in which it sent thousands of members to Capitol Hill to push for tougher measures against Iran. On its website, AIPAC endorses the resolutions as a way to ”Stop Irans Nuclear Proliferation” and tells readers to lobby Congress to pass the bill.

AIPAC has been ramping up the rhetoric against Iran over the last 3 years delivering 9 issue memos to Congress in 2006, 17 in 2007 and in the first five months of 2008 has delivered no less than 11 issue memos to the Congress and Senate predominantly warning of Irans nuclear weapons involvement and support for terrorism.

The Resolutions put forward in the House and the Senate bear a resounding similarity to AIPAC analysis and Issue Memos in both its analysis and proposals even down to its individual components.

Proponents say the resolutions advocate constructive steps toward reducing the threat posed by Iran. “It is my hope that…this Congress will urge this and future administrations to lead the world in economically isolating Iran in real and substantial ways,” said Congressman Mike Pence(R-IN), who is the original cosponsor of the House resolution along with Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Chairman of the sub committee on Middle East and South Asia of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Foreign policy analysts worry that such unilateral sanctions make it harder for the US to win the cooperation of the international community on a more effective multilateral effort. In his online blog, Senior Fellow in the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Ethan Chorin points out that some US allies seek the economic ties to Iran that these resolutions ban. “The Swiss have recently signed an MOU with Iran on gas imports; the Omanis are close to a firm deal (also) on gas imports from Iran; a limited-services joint Iranian-European bank just opened a branch on Kish Island,” he writes.

These resolutions could severely escalate US-Iran tensions, experts say. Recalling the perception of the naval blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the international norms classifying a naval blockade an act of war, critics argue endorsement of these bills would signal US intentions of war with Iran.

Last week’s sharp rise in the cost of oil following Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz’s threat to attack Iran indicated the impact that global fear of military action against Iran can have on the world petroleum market. It remains unclear if extensive congressional endorsement of these measures could have a similar effect.

In late May, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly urged the United States to impose a blockade on Iran. During a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in Jersusalem, Olmert said economic sanctions have “exhausted themselves” and called a blockade a “good possibility.”

 

ANNEX

Text of Proposed Resolution

HCON 362 IH

110th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. CON. RES. 362

Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 22, 2008

Mr. ACKERMAN (for himself and Mr. PENCE) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes.

Whereas Iran is a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), has foresworn the acquisition of nuclear weapons by ratification of the NPT, and is legally bound to declare and place all its nuclear activity under constant monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA);

Whereas for nearly 20 years, in clear contravention of its explicit obligations under the NPT, Iran operated a covert nuclear program until it was revealed by an Iranian opposition group in 2002;

Whereas the IAEA has confirmed such illicit covert nuclear activities as the importation of uranium hexafluoride, construction of a uranium enrichment facility, experimentation with plutonium, importation of centrifuge technology, construction of centrifuges, and importation of designs to convert highly enriched uranium gas into metal and shape it into the core of a nuclear weapon;

Whereas Iran continues to expand the number of centrifuges at its enrichment facility, as made evident by its announced intention to begin installation of 6,000 advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium, in defiance of binding United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding Iran suspend enrichment activities;

Whereas the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate reported that Iran was secretly working on the design and manufacture of a nuclear warhead until at least 2003, but that Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon as soon as late 2009;

Whereas an Iranian nuclear weapons capability would pose a grave threat to international peace and security by fundamentally altering and destabilizing the strategic balance in the Middle East, and severely undermining the global nonproliferation regime;

Whereas Iran’s overt sponsorship of several terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and its close ties to Syria raise the possibility that Iran would share its nuclear materials and technology with others;

Whereas Iran continues to develop ballistic missile technology and is pursuing the capability to field intercontinental ballistic missiles, a delivery system suited almost exclusively to nuclear weapons payloads;

Whereas Iranian leaders have repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, a major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally, and a member of the United Nations;

Whereas the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany have offered, and continue to offer, to negotiate a significant package of economic, diplomatic, and security incentives if Iran complies with the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment;

Whereas Iran has consistently refused such offers;

Whereas as a result of Iran’s failure to comply with the mandates of the United Nations Security Council, taken under Chapter VII of the United Nations’ Charter, the international community has imposed limited sanctions over the past 2 years that have begun to have an impact on the Iranian economy;

Whereas Iran’s rapid development of its nuclear capabilities is outpacing the slow ratcheting up of economic and diplomatic sanctions;

Whereas Iran has used its banking system, including the Central Bank of Iran, to support its proliferation efforts and its assistance to terrorist groups, leading the Department of Treasury to designate 4 large Iranian banks proliferators and supporters of terrorism;

Whereas Iran’s support for Hezbollah has enabled that group to wage war against the Government and people of Lebanon, leading to its political domination of that country;

Whereas Iran’s support for Hamas has enabled it to illegally seize control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority, and to continuously bombard Israeli civilians with rockets and mortars;

Whereas Iran continues to provide training, weapons, and financial assistance to Shi’a militants inside of Iraq and antigovernment warlords in Afghanistan;

Whereas those Shi’a militant groups and Afghan warlords use Iranian training, weapons, and financing to attack American and allied forces trying to support the legitimate Governments of Iraq and Afghanistan;

Whereas Iran is further destabilizing the Middle East by underwriting a massive rearmament campaign by Syria;

Whereas through these efforts, Iran seeks to establish regional hegemony, threatens longstanding friends and allies of the United States in the Middle East, and endangers vital American national security interests; and

Whereas nothing in this resolution shall be construed as an authorization of the use of force against Iran: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress–

(1) declares that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, through all appropriate economic, political, and diplomatic means, is vital to the national security interests of the United States and must be dealt with urgently;

(2) urges the President, in the strongest of terms, to immediately use his existing authority to impose sanctions on–

(A) the Central Bank of Iran and any other Iranian bank engaged in proliferation activities or the support of terrorist groups;

(B) international banks which continue to conduct financial transactions with proscribed Iranian banks;

(C) energy companies that have invested $20,000,000 or more in the Iranian petroleum or natural gas sector in any given year since the enactment of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996; and

(D) all companies which continue to do business with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps;

(3) demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program; and

(4) urges the President to lead a sustained, serious, and forceful effort at regional diplomacy to support the legitimate governments in the region against Iranian efforts to destabilize them, to reassure our friends and allies that the United States supports them in their resistance to Iranian efforts at hegemony, and to make clear to the Government of Iran that the United States will protect America’s vital national security interests in the Middle East.

 

For links to and in this on-line article click here:

 

 

DUSTY’S COMMENTS:

 

You say you’ve read your paper’s headlines today (June 22, 2008) and you don’t find anything like the caption to this article?  You ask what prompts me to say America has begun its attack on Iran?  I’ll give you the short and the long of it. The short first:  Your newspaper today DID contain the AP release that the Khaleej Times (government-owned newspaper in Dubai [United Arab Emirates]) is calling the Israel military maneuvers of the past week what they are – a patent  precursor to bombing Iran.

 

In case you haven’t noticed it, since 1948, we are Israel’s political and  military ally. Israel for all practical purposes is us. When Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities, it will be Israel and the U.S. who take the heat for it. That’s, after all, what bin Laden has said, time and time again, was  the reason (his own motivation)  for 9/11—America’s alliance with Israel.

 

Now for the long part—the less obvious logic. Consider first an analogy that we’re all familiar with – because of having been children:  The school-yard bully always has an entourage of weaker “tag-alongs ”.  These weaker, flunkie,  tag-alongs are the bully’s “mob” and moral support. They are also, most often, the ones who provoke the fights the bully gets involved in. Sometimes the bully has the tag-along communicate the threat and start the fight, but most often the tag-along starts things for his own self-aggrandizing  reasons.  The tag-along would be afraid to start a fight without the bully around for obvious reasons – he’d get his butt whipped without the bully either backing him or fighting the fight the flunky instigates.  So it’s normally the flunky’s mouth, his threats and his  “first stones” that commence the fights in the school yards of out past, and more alarmingly, in the foreign theaters of our current wars.

 

Without 50 years of military support on America’s part, there would be no Israel. American Jews financed the war in 1948 and today adopt and subsidize select Zionist Israeli military warriors who propound and execute Israel’s bully policies in Palestine and the settlements in Gaza.  Israel is America’s flunky in this festering war in the Middle East, and America is the world-perceived, world-class bully to blame.

 

America’s neo-con-machinated invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were clearly the product of a war plan conceived by Zionists Jews and passed to their bully partner since the birth of the Israeli nation in 1948.  Students of the so-called “American War on Terror” know the war is simply the execution of a plan for Middle Eastern restructuring written (although its theologic roots are in the Old Testament promise of “promised land” to  God’s “chosen”, i.e. the Jews) in that 1998 declaration entitled “A Clean Break”.  To review this history, all the reader need do is Google “A Clean Break”, and “PNAC” + “Statement  of Principles”, or simply click on and read the “Free Book” on American Fascism linked on the home page of this website.

 

If you study how the war on Iraq was arranged, you’ll understand how the war on Iran is being constructed. It’s all the same plan, and it’s happening exactly in the same way – (1) Scare Americans into believing a given country is harboring terrorists who want us dead, and (2) make us believe those terrorists are building …you guessed it, “weapons of mass destruction” to kill us with.  How many times can you fool the same people with the same lie?  Was Lincoln right? Can you fool some of the people all of the time?  Have we become that kind of people?

 

For a November, 2007 prediction of this moment in time, simply click on the article we posted back then when it became apparent that Bush was planning a war with Iran with the same stealth he pulled of his invasion of Iraq while we thought we were assembling troops in the Middle East to fight terrorists in Afghanistan…in at least the vicinity of those calling themselves “al Qaeda”.  Check out what we pointed out to  you on this before.

 

It’s been a ruse all the time and it remains a ruse. By “ruse” I mean – “misdirection”—the same thing a magician uses on stage when he does something with a flurry with his left hand to prevent you from noticing his reaching for the rabbit with his right. 

 

Right about now, Bush and the Zionist-Jew-Christian-Crazy armageddonites are asking you to look at Israel as if Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is acting autonomously when his air force is carrying out menacing maneuvers clearly intended to be taken by Iran as a promise of being bombed if they continue with their Nuclear power plans.  The U.S. has its military back turned claiming we (the U.S.) is seeking “diplomatic” resolution. Sure, Condi, we believe you this time. Fool me once shame on …..  (now how was it Bush finished that aphorism?!)

 

In Dubai, our former allies in the oil business are quite accurately saying that an attack on Iran will have “disastrous consequences for the region”.  America, through Bush, Condi and the other lying neo-cons is denying any complicity with their flunkie , tag-along wannabee big bully in the Middle East. But in truth, America and Israel are, behind the closed doors of the Pentagon, one. And the whole world knows it. If America is going to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites, I wouldn’t be half so disturbed if (1) they would tell the truth about it and (2) get our Congress to agree to it.  Aren’t you with me on this? Aren’t you a little tired of being lied to by our leadership…especially on our way to war…where they give the word and our sons and daughters give the blood?

 

DW readers….unite. Send this message to every thinker you know. Hit the following link and demand that your congressmen preempt this cowardly  preemptive declaration of war by the American bully by and through the actions of its military flunkie puppet  state in the Middle East.  It is they who will launch the battle, but it is we who will die because of it.  Just ask the 10,000 + parents of dead American soldiers.  Hit and fill the following linked message to let your agents in Washington know that you know what Bush is doing with both hands.  Don’t let the big bully blame the war on the little bully. Without both, working together, there would be no war in Iraq.  With both working together, there will be war in Iran. How many times do we want to be fooled?

 

Click here to read.

 

Len Carrier’s Post Script

Dusty,

 

If we want to see oil go to $200 a barrel, all the Bush Administration has to do is give Israel the green light to bomb Iran.  Then the Iranians will block the straits of Hormuz, and nobody here will be able to buy gasoline under $6.00 per gallon.  Then Bush, in the last throes of his presidency, will demand that we give oil companies permits to drill in the last few vestiges of our national heritage.  Of course, this won’t help bring gasoline prices down at all, but it might scare our chicken-hearted representatives in Congress to go along with Bush-Cheney’s final attempt to steal another country’s oil.  Bush, Cheney,  and their oily friends will profit in any case.

 

Then we’ll have a push for all-out war with Iran, because our “national interest “demands it. Our Air Force, itching to bomb another country into oblivion, will be willing to send our bombers over Teheran, and the neocons will rejoice in yet another bite of the apple, another chance to “democratize” a foreign country against its will.  What  follows will be a replay of Iraq, where “mistakes will have been made,” all in the name of trying to turn Iran into a vassal of our capitalistic society.

 

If all this happens, John McCain, that war-mongering, damaged piece of detritus left over from Vietnam, will claim his patriotic right to be President in the time of war.  The American public, gullible as ever, will fall for this line of jingoistic ravings and elect him so that we can have at least four more years of killing, borrowing, and the ruination of our American Republic.

 

I wish all this were only a nightmare. Recent exercises of the Israeli Air Force tell me that it might actually happen.

 

Len

 

 

 

 

DI CALL
TO ACTION:

STOP WHAT YOU ARE
DOING AND HELP US

ABORT ANOTHER OF  BUSH’S ILLIGITIMATE  PREEMPTIVE WARS

OPPOSE Senate Resolution  580 and

House: H Con. Res.  363

This just in from Dan Stone, DW affiliate and correspondent from California, founder and editor of the on-line news letter “Justice Freedom”:    June 26, 2008:

Dear All,

I called the offices of Representatives Jesse Jackson, Jr., Robert Wexler, and Henry Waxman, and the latter two said the Representagives had co-sponsored H CON RES 362 because it was non-binding, and required diplomacy, not force. These people are sleep-walking into another attack!!

If passed, this Resolution (with the Senate concurring as per SEN RES 580) would constitute approval of the American people (via congress) of a naval blockade against Iran. What are the chances Cheney and Bush will take this approval and run with it !?!?! This naval blockade–an act of war–would be the first actual step toward an attack on Iran. It would bring the united states into the “fog of war” in which Cheney / Bush would be able to ramp up their actions against Iran and duplicate the scenario as with Iraq, with the U.S. as the aggressor, Iran the victim, and the Congress and the American people the enablers. Remember how we just invaded Iraq, no shots fired by them, no provocation, no nothing. We just went in. Now is the time to stop this aggressive process.

See the wording of H CON RES 362 below to read the part which could be used to mount a naval blockade, the first step toward an attack. In Item #3 (toward the end), it states:  “prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program;”  This is the language of naval blockade, which is the language of war.

Please contact your Reps and Senators to urge them to oppose these 2 War Resolutions.

- Dan

***************************

Click here for reference.

ANNEX

Text of Proposed Resolution

HCON 362 IH

110th CONGRESS

2d Session

H. CON. RES. 362

Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 22, 2008

Mr. ACKERMAN (for himself and Mr. PENCE) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes.

Whereas Iran is a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), has foresworn the acquisition of nuclear weapons by ratification of the NPT, and is legally bound to declare and place all its nuclear activity under constant monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA);

Whereas for nearly 20 years, in clear contravention of its explicit obligations under the NPT, Iran operated a covert nuclear program until it was revealed by an Iranian opposition group in 2002;

Whereas the IAEA has confirmed such illicit covert nuclear activities as the importation of uranium hexafluoride, construction of a uranium enrichment facility, experimentation with plutonium, importation of centrifuge technology, construction of centrifuges, and importation of designs to convert highly enriched uranium gas into metal and shape it into the core of a nuclear weapon;

Whereas Iran continues to expand the number of centrifuges at its enrichment facility, as made evident by its announced intention to begin installation of 6,000 advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium, in defiance of binding United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding Iran suspend enrichment activities;

Whereas the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate reported that Iran was secretly working on the design and manufacture of a nuclear warhead until at least 2003, but that Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon as soon as late 2009;

Whereas an Iranian nuclear weapons capability would pose a grave threat to international peace and security by fundamentally altering and destabilizing the strategic balance in the Middle East, and severely undermining the global nonproliferation regime;

Whereas Iran’s overt sponsorship of several terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and its close ties to Syria raise the possibility that Iran would share its nuclear materials and technology with others;

Whereas Iran continues to develop ballistic missile technology and is pursuing the capability to field intercontinental ballistic missiles, a delivery system suited almost exclusively to nuclear weapons payloads;

Whereas Iranian leaders have repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, a major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally, and a member of the United Nations;

Whereas the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany have offered, and continue to offer, to negotiate a significant package of economic, diplomatic, and security incentives if Iran complies with the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment;

Whereas Iran has consistently refused such offers;

Whereas as a result of Iran’s failure to comply with the mandates of the United Nations Security Council, taken under Chapter VII of the United Nations’ Charter, the international community has imposed limited sanctions over the past 2 years that have begun to have an impact on the Iranian economy;

Whereas Iran’s rapid development of its nuclear capabilities is outpacing the slow ratcheting up of economic and diplomatic sanctions;

Whereas Iran has used its banking system, including the Central Bank of Iran, to support its proliferation efforts and its assistance to terrorist groups, leading the Department of Treasury to designate 4 large Iranian banks proliferators and supporters of terrorism;

Whereas Iran’s support for Hezbollah has enabled that group to wage war against the Government and people of Lebanon, leading to its political domination of that country;

Whereas Iran’s support for Hamas has enabled it to illegally seize control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority, and to continuously bombard Israeli civilians with rockets and mortars;

Whereas Iran continues to provide training, weapons, and financial assistance to Shi’a militants inside of Iraq and antigovernment warlords in Afghanistan;

Whereas those Shi’a militant groups and Afghan warlords use Iranian training, weapons, and financing to attack American and allied forces trying to support the legitimate Governments of Iraq and Afghanistan;

Whereas Iran is further destabilizing the Middle East by underwriting a massive rearmament campaign by Syria;

Whereas through these efforts, Iran seeks to establish regional hegemony, threatens longstanding friends and allies of the United States in the Middle East, and endangers vital American national security interests; and

Whereas nothing in this resolution shall be construed as an authorization of the use of force against Iran: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress–

(1) declares that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, through all appropriate economic, political, and diplomatic means, is vital to the national security interests of the United States and must be dealt with urgently;

(2) urges the President, in the strongest of terms, to immediately use his existing authority to impose sanctions on–

(A) the Central Bank of Iran and any other Iranian bank engaged in proliferation activities or the support of terrorist groups;

(B) international banks which continue to conduct financial transactions with proscribed Iranian banks;

(C) energy companies that have invested $20,000,000 or more in the Iranian petroleum or natural gas sector in any given year since the enactment of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996; and

(D) all companies which continue to do business with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps;

(3) demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program; and

(4) urges the President to lead a sustained, serious, and forceful effort at regional diplomacy to support the legitimate governments in the region against Iranian efforts to destabilize them, to reassure our friends and allies that the United States supports them in their resistance to Iranian efforts at hegemony, and to make clear to the Government of Iran that the United States will protect America’s vital national security interests in the Middle East.