Yemen Is the First Battleground in Trump’s Confrontation With Iran. The Trump White House has begun stepping up action against Iranian- backed rebels in Yemen, part of a broader plan to counter Tehran by targeting its allies in the impoverished Gulf state. On Thursday, the United States diverted a destroyer to the Yemeni coast to protect shipping from Iranian- backed rebels, and is weighing tougher steps including drone strikes and deploying military advisers to assist local forces, according to officials familiar with the discussions.“There’s a desire to look at a very aggressive pushback” against Iran in Yemen within the administration, a source advising the Trump national security team said. Given the public rhetoric and private deliberations in the White House, the United States could “become more directly involved in trying to fight the Houthis” alongside Saudi and Emirati allies, said the source, who asked not to be named as he had not been authorized by the White House to comment. President Donald Trump’s aides see Yemen as an important battleground to signal U. S. But the tough approach carries the risk of triggering Iranian retaliation against the United States in Iraq and Syria, or even a full- blown war with Iran. On Friday, national security advisor Michael Flynn released a statement accusing the international community of having been “too tolerant of Iran’s bad behavior,” adding “the Trump Administration will no longer tolerate Iran’s provocations that threaten our interests.” In the first visible response to Monday’s attack on a Saudi frigate by Houthi suicide boats, the USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer, was ordered away from a “routine mission” in the Persian Gulf late Thursday and sent to the Bab al- Mandab Strait, a Pentagon official told FP. The area saw Houthi missile attacks on a U. S. Additionally, on Friday, the administration slapped a new round of sanctions on Iranian businesses, backing up a stream of threats and condemnations it issued in response to Iran’s recent ballistic missile test. ![]() Get the latest international news and world events from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and more. See world news photos and videos at ABCNews.com. To counter Iran’s proxies in Yemen, the administration is considering ramping up drone strikes, deploying more military advisors and carrying out more commando raids, the administration advisor and Republican congressional staffers said. The review also includes possibly expediting approval for military strikes against militants in Yemen — which required high level deliberations under the Obama administration — and expanding efforts to block Iranian arms deliveries to the Houthi forces. ![]() An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS. 1, 2014 file photo, shows a nuclear research reactor at the headquarters of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, which went online with American help in. News on Japan, Business News, Opinion, Sports, Entertainment and More. Yemen Is the First Battleground in Trump’s Confrontation With Iran. The administration has its sights set on checkmating Tehran’s ambitions across the region. One of the several brave robots to make one-way trips into Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant’s severely damaged reactors has accomplished what its less. Having campaigned on a get- tough policy toward Iran, Trump’s first test came over the weekend, when Iran conducted a ballistic missile test, followed by the Houthi boat attack. Those moves are reinforcing Flynn’s already- hawkish instincts toward Iran, the adviser said.“Flynn wants to very strongly counter Iranian efforts” throughout the Middle East, but questions remain over the timing and the details of any stepped up U. S. The sanctions handed down Friday would not violate the nuclear agreement between Iran and major powers, but were widely viewed as a first step in a series of measures by the Treasury Department designed to squeeze Iran and discourage foreign investment. The 2. 01. 5 nuclear agreement imposed limits on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions. Washington has already played a role in the Yemeni civil war, supporting the Saudi- led bombing campaign against Houthi rebels for the past two years, providing hundreds of aerial refueling flights and drone surveillance missions to identify targets. The Pentagon curtailed some of its intelligence assistance last year, after Saudi Arabia drew international condemnation for the killing of scores of civilians during poorly planned airstrikes. Former president Barack Obama’s administration long played down the scale of Iran’s assistance to the rebels in Yemen and did not portray Tehran’s activity as a major security threat. Instead, the previous administration placed a higher priority on targeting al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, which intelligence agencies have long described as the most capable in the terror network. In a series of stern warnings to Iran that continued through Friday, Trump and Flynn — with backing from congressional Republicans — vowed a tougher stance to counter Iranian missile programs and Tehran’s continued support for the Houthis. On Wednesday, Flynn strode into the White House briefing room to deliver the warning that the administration is “officially putting Iran on notice,” but refused to elaborate what might be under consideration. After meeting with Flynn on Friday, Sen. Bob Corker (R- Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said there needed to be “a coordinated, multi- faceted effort to pushback against a range of illicit Iranian behavior” in Yemen and the Middle East. One worry inside the administration is that Iran will expand its support for the Houthi rebels if Yemen’s civil war continues to grind on without resolution, threatening neighboring Saudi Arabia and international shipping passing along the coast — one of the world’s key maritime choke points. But deeper military involvement in Yemen is risky. An assault by U. S. Navy SEALs and Emirati commandos on Saturday in central Yemen — meant to attack al Qaeda terrorists unaffiliated with Tehran — was the first known U. S.- led ground operation in Yemen since December 2. American forces in the chaotic country. One Navy SEAL died, as did an unknown number of civilians.“The raid may signal a growing U. How Exactly Did 1. Pounds of Meat End Up on a Roof in Florida? An Investigation. In a parallel universe, there’s a planet where it rains only Italian cured meats. It appears that somehow, a wormhole has ripped through the space- time continuum and connected that world to ours, as evidenced by an assemblage of Italian sausage recently found on a family’s roof in Deerfield Beach, Florida. It’s a mystery meat whodunnit that raises more questions than answers; a cold case that has shaken a community to its core. On Saturday at around 4am, the Adair family was awakened by a loud thud on the roof of their residence. Morning’s light later revealed the unthinkable: 1. Italian sausage, wrapped in suspicious white packaging. The only clue left at the scene was the name printed on the bag, “Williams Land Service,” which the Adairs traced back to a land surveying company in Alabama. A rep at the company told Austin Adair, who was sleeping at the time the meat dropped on his home, that they had no business with the sausage.“You could tell that guy thought I was absolutely insane when I called him,” Adair told Gizmodo. How far down the rabbit hole of depravity does this entire ordeal go? We decided to investigate a few possible leads: Theory 1: It was a prank. The kids these days just don’t appreciate the value of a quality Italian meat. It’s possible that some hooligan with a grudge against gourmet sausages threw the bag full of meat on the Adair’s home as some sort of joke. There is nothing funny about wasting sausage to satisfy some sophomoric desire for validation. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office, which serves Deerfield Beach, did not respond to Gizmodo’s inquiry as to whether or not “similar incidences with meats (or other objects) have been reported recently.” We will update this post if and when we hear back. Theory 2: It was a drone delivery gone wrong. There’s no conceivable way that bags of meat would look this pristine if they were dropped from an airplane. The Adairs suspect that the meat could have come from a drone that accidentally dropped the meat on their roof.“The most non- crazy thing we can think of is maybe it was a drone delivery of some kind, but even that doesn’t make sense because of the company name on it,” Adair said. Curiously enough, there is a “European Sausage Kitchen” located right in the heart of Deerfield Beach. Gizmodo called and emailed Emil’s European Sausage Kitchen to find out if they knew anything about the sausage delivery, but apparently, the shop is closed until the end of August “for vacation.” Suspicious. If you ignore how utterly ridiculous it is, the drone theory seems almost plausible. Who hasn’t tried to airlift some Italian meats their way? The problem is that Deerfield Beach is sandwiched between two airports which are no- fly zones for drones, according to drone website Hivemapper. Therefore, it’s unclear just how far a drone could fly near the Adairs’ home—legally. That brings us to our next lead. Theory 3: Drugs—or worse. It’s possible that this story has nothing to do with delicious meats at all—perhaps the Adairs found themselves in the crosshairs of an international sausage heist or drug exchange gone wrong.“Some people have said they think it’s not actually sausage and it’s like a body in the meat,” Adair told Gizmodo. We could not independently confirm the meat’s quality as it is currently somewhere in a landfill in Deerfield Beach, Florida. No matter which way you look at this case, one thing’s for sure: it’s a spicy meatball of a story.
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