A dozen US Air Force F-35 Lightning IIs have arrived in the Middle East to beef up US Central Command’s airpower in the region and deter Iran and Russia from carrying out provocative actions.
Meanwhile, there were new leaks in Washington about the suspension of the United States Special Representative for Iran, Robert Malley, following reports about him leaking information about a new nuclear deal with Tehran.
“In coordination with our regional allies, partners, and the US Navy, the F-35s will partner with A-10 and F-16s already in theater helping monitor the Strait of Hormuz,” Air Forces Central (AFCENT) spokesman Col. Mike Andrews said in a statement.
“The F-35’s increased capacity and capability will allow the US to fly in contested airspace across the theater if required.”
The stealthy multirole F-35 fighters deployed come from the 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron of Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The accurate locations for deployment weren’t determined.
The US Navy said earlier that Iran attempted to seize two commercial oil tanker ships in the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz. Both incidents occurred in international waters.
In two incidents on July 23 and 26 in Syria, Russian warplanes released flares that damaged two US drones.
The Pentagon announced on July 17 that it was sending additional F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, along with a warship to the Middle East, in a bid to monitor key waterways in the region following Iran's seizure and harassment of commercial shipping vessels in recent months.
Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said: “We continue to be in communication with Congress and be in communication about their requests for additional information and briefings on this matter, including correspondence with the House Foreign Affairs Committee. We anticipate that we’ll be providing them additional briefings shortly.”
Before these statements, The Washington Free Beacon reported that “Malley may have leaked classified information” to a network of pro-Tehran advocates and deal supporters in the US known as the "echo chamber."
In mid-May, a group of senators began quietly asking questions after Malley was a no-show at a classified briefing on negotiations surrounding a revamped Iran nuclear deal.
As the top diplomat involved in talks with Tehran, Malley’s failure to appear before Congress drew questions from lawmakers and senior staffers. At the time, Biden administration officials told lawmakers that Malley was on extended personal leave, sources say.
Just a month later, it became clear that Malley was the subject of an investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified information, a charge so serious that the probe was later handed off from the State Department office responsible for diplomatic security to the FBI.
The Tehran Times, in its July report, stated that Malley “is routinely in contact with a slew of Iranian-regime advocates” and that “these allies act as middlemen for negotiations with the Iranian government”.
The Tehran Times added that Malley engaged in "suspicious interactions with unofficial advisors of Iranian descent," and that his security clearance was initially pulled in late April.
"A large part of Malley’s work was to circulate information throughout the US-based Iranian diaspora that eventually found its way to Tehran," veteran national security analyst Lee Smith wrote this week in an article for Tablet Magazine.
"The fact that the details about Malley’s suspension are coming from Iranian rather than US media is a big clue that something big is missing from the White House’s highly minimized account."
