§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 work together to create and send a plan to Congress. The plan must explain how the United States will deter Iranian military and irregular threats that directly threaten the United States and key allies in the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond. It must spell out U.S. short- and long-term goals, which countries share those goals, what each partner is doing and could do more of, Iran’s conventional military and missile/drone/naval plans, Iran’s chemical and biological capabilities, Iran’s asymmetric activities (including the IRGC and Quds Force, cyber actions, support to groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, some Iraqi militias, the Assad regime in Syria, Houthi fighters in Yemen, and information/propaganda efforts), and U.S. actions to counter these threats, including intercepting lethal arms bound for groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations under section 1189 of title 8, threats to shipping, efforts to subvert governments, and support to the Assad regime. The plan must be sent in unclassified form but may include a classified annex. It goes to these congressional recipients: Senate — the Finance Committee, the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, and the Senate majority and minority leaders; House — the Ways and Means Committee, the Financial Services Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Speaker, majority leader, and minority leader.