U.S. Efforts to Tighten Blockade of Iran Rely on Reluctant Neighbors

The first step in the United States’ campaign to economically strangle Iran was a naval blockade of its ports, cutting off Iranian trade by sea. Next came a raft of new sanctions, grounding much of the country’s air transport network. Now, the United States is going after Iran’s last economic artery: its land routes. Only there, Washington has hit upon a problem. For weeks, U.S. officials have tried — and failed — to diplomatically pressure Iran’s neighbors into shuttering their border crossings, according to three Iraqi officials and one U.S. official with knowledge of the talks, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Those neighboring states, primarily Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan, are increasingly wary and disgruntled by U.S. policies they say could hurt them as much as Tehran. So, on Saturday, the U.S. military joined the effort, announcing Task Force Iron Gate , which it says will work 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.”

It is unclear how the task force will operate in practice, and it is unusual for such an economic and security campaign to be run by U.S. Central Command, known as Centcom, which oversees military operations in the Middle East. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

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