A recent publication warns that while the 12-day war with Iran may be over, the threat of Iranian reprisal attacks is far from behind us.
European authorities uncovered plots in Sweden and Germany even as fighting raged, while Israeli officials issued security warnings about possible attacks in the United Arab Emirates just weeks later. Intelligence officials fear that Iran or its agents may seek to strike inside the United States itself, tapping into what U.S. counterterrorism officials have described as a “homeland option” developed over years.
The risk is heightened given America’s direct role in bombing Iran’s Fordow nuclear complex, prompting U.S. authorities to issue a terrorism advisory warning of potential plots on U.S. soil.
The report out of The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point examines Iran’s potential pathways for conducting or enabling attacks in the United States. These include deploying Iranian intelligence operatives, leaning on criminal surrogates, working through terrorist proxies, or seeking to inspire lone actors motivated by Tehran’s cause. Drawing on historical cases, the analysis paints a sobering picture: Iran has a wide menu of options to threaten the U.S. homeland, and officials warn that this threat is likely to persist well into the future.
(AI was used in part to facilitate this article.)