§9402 Regional Strategy for Countering Conventional and Asymmetric Iranian Threats in the Middle East and North Africa

Summary

Within 180 days after August 2, 2017, and every 2 years after that, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Director of National Intelligence must jointly write and send a strategy to Congress and its leaders. The strategy must lay out U.S. goals, plans, and means to deter Iran’s conventional and asymmetric threats to the United States and key allies in the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond. The plan must include: U.S. near- and long-term objectives and which countries share them; what partner countries can and do contribute; assessments of Iran’s conventional forces (including missiles, drones, naval and area-denial systems) and of any chemical or biological programs; a review of Iran’s asymmetric activities (the IRGC and Quds Force, cyber operations, support to groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, Iraqi militias, Assad’s forces, Houthi fighters, and other violent groups, and Iran’s information operations); and a summary of U.S. actions to counter these threats (including stopping lethal arms to groups on the U.S. foreign terrorist organization list (8 U.S.C. 1189), interference with shipping, attempts to subvert governments, and support for the Assad regime). The report must be unclassified but may include a classified annex. The recipients are these congressional offices: Senate — Committee on Finance; Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Committee on Foreign Relations; and the Senate majority and minority leaders. House — Committee on Ways and Means; Committee on Financial Services; Committee on Foreign Affairs; and the Speaker, the House majority leader, and the House minority leader.