US launches task force to disrupt land transit routes into Iran

This US Navy handout photograph released by US Naval Forces Central Command on October 30, 2026, shows US sailors departing an E-2D Hawkeye on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington on October 29, 2026. — AFP pic

First Published: Sunday, 08 Nov 2026 6:02 PM MYT

WASHINGTON, Nov 8 — The US military has announced it will create a 20-member task force to find ways to disrupt land routes into Iran that it says are used for shipments of weapons and illicit materials.

The restrictions would expand on a US naval blockade of Iranian ports during the two countries’ eight-month war, in which Tehran has also restricted passage through the critical Strait of Hormuz trade route, choking global energy supplies.

The task force’s work “will further constrain Iran’s ability to finance terrorism, rebuild weapons factories, and replenish their military,” US Central Command chief Brad Cooper said in a statement posted on X yesterday.

The team of both civilian and military personnel based in Florida would coordinate with US government agencies on “preventing the movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illegal revenue streams across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea,” the statement added.

The United States imposed a blockade on Iranian ports early in the war in response to Tehran seeking to limit traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where around a fifth of global oil trade normally passes.

That blockade has halted around US$25 billion (RM100 billion) in crude oil exports from Iran, according to the US Central Command. — AFP