US needs a bespoke approach to the Caspian

Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, last week announced Task Force Iron Gate, a new initiative designed to disrupt the movement of illicit goods across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea. It complements the existing US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

But implementing Iron Gate will be no easy task, given the sheer length of Iran’s borders and the region’s difficult terrain and geography. Iran shares land borders with Iraq, Turkiye, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, totaling about 5,900 km. That is greater than the straight-line distance between Dubai and London.

Yet Cooper specifically included the Caspian Sea in the initiative.