Iran was likely behind the attack on four oil tankers in the Gulf last weekend, which led to the United States removing some of its diplomatic staff from Baghdad. They also sent U.S. destroyers through the Gulf in a show of force; The New York Times reports that the Iranians have unloaded missiles from several small boats in territorial waters, leading some to believe that tensions are ratcheting down. Still, the Iranians were saber-rattling as ever; Iranian state media quoted the chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as saying that “Even our short-range missiles can easily reach (U.S.) warships in the Persian Gulf,” according to Reuters.
It’s clear that the situation is fairly tense, so when Politico reported, “SPOTTED: SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D-Calif.), who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, walking around the Capitol with her iPhone screen facing outward in full view, and Javad Zarif’s contact page on the screen. Zarif is the name of Iran’s foreign minister,” it was a big red flag.
Why, during a crisis like this one, would the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee be talking to Iran’s foreign minister?
Fox News host Mark Levin stated during his radio show on Thursday, “He’s the foreign minister to an enemy state that seeks to attack American military personnel in the Middle East, that seeks to put nuclear warheads on ICBMs so they can reach the United States. It is a terrorist regime, an Islamo-Nazi regime in Tehran, that has killed Americans, that funds Hezbollah to kill Americans, that funds Hamas to kill, and is a threat to our national security, obviously.”
“What in the hell is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee doing talking on an iPhone around the Capitol to Javad Zarif?”