The military’s intelligence chief said Iran does not want war with the U.S. despite its seizure of British tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, escalating tensions in the region.
Iranian forces reportedly seized at least two vessels affiliated with the U.K. in the strait on Friday, just hours before Army Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, participated in a talk at the Aspen Security Forum.
“Does Iran want war?” CNN’s Jim Sciutto asked Ashley.
“No,” Ashley replied.
The general said he believed Iran, Russia, and China do not want war because they all know the outcome would be “horrific for all.”
“I see Iran at an inflection point,” Ashley said.
The question for policymakers, he said, is how to get Iran to change the status quo.
“Now you heard the economic breakdown, in terms of the pressure that’s on the regime, where the GDP is going, the fact that they are going into recession, and the glide path that they are on is more of the same,” Ashley said.
What Iran has done to shake things up is to attempt to divide the U.S. and its European allies, he added.
Iran seized the first ship, the British-flagged Stena Impero, and the second, the Liberian-flagged MV Mesdar, within two hours of each other, according to reports and ship tracking data. Despite being Liberian-flagged, the Mesdar is owned by U.K.-based Norbulk Shipping.
The Mesdar was released withing a couple hours.
“This only goes to show what I’m saying about Iran. Trouble. Nothing but trouble,” President Trump told reporters Friday afternoon. “It goes to show you I was right about Iran.”
Iran threatened to seize a British ship in retaliation for the U.K.’s impounding of an Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar earlier this month. The tanker was suspected of transporting oil to Syria, a key Iranian ally, in violation of European Union and U.S. sanctions.
“I’m extremely concerned by the seizures of two naval vessels by Iranian authorities in the Strait of Hormuz,” British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said in a statement.
Hunt confirmed there were no British citizens aboard the two ships and that the British ambassador in Tehran has contacted the Iranian foreign ministry “to resolve the situation.”
