https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...lynn-on-notice
The Trump administration has said it was “officially putting Iran on notice” in reaction to a Iranian missile test and an attack on a Saudi warship by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, but gave no details about how Washington intended to respond. The threat was made on Wednesday by the national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in his first public statement since taking office.
Speaking in the White House briefing room, Flynn said the medium-range missile launch on Sunday and a Houthi attack on a Saudi frigate on Monday, reportedly by suicide-boat, represented “the latest of a series of incidents in the past six months in which Houthi forces that Iran has trained and armed have struck Emirati and Saudi vessels, and threatened US and allied vessels transiting the Red Sea.
“In these and other similar activities, Iran continues to threaten US friends and allies in the region,” the national security adviser said. He said Iranian actions “undermine security, prosperity, and stability throughout and beyond the Middle East and place American lives at risk”.
Flynn did not specify how the new administration would respond. Asked for clarification, the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, said that the president wanted to make sure the Iranians “understood we are not going to sit by and not act on their actions”.......
Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the International Crisis Group in Washington, said: “It’s either an empty threat or a clear statement of intent to go to war with Iran......