US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster declared on Saturday that Iran was increasingly building and arming a strong “network of proxies” in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
McMaster accused Iran of escalating a campaign to increase its influence in the Middle East by building and arming "Hezbollah-style" proxy armies in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere as it has done in Lebanon.
The goal was to weaken Arab governments and turn the proxy forces against those states if they pursued policies that ran counter to Tehran's interests, he said.
"So, the time is now, we think, to act against Iran," he told the Munich Security Conference, calling on US allies to halt trade that was helping underwrite the expansion of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
The United States deems Lebanon's “Hezbollah” a terrorist organization.
"What's particularly concerning is that this network of proxies is becoming more and more capable," he said.
McMaster also railed against the 2015 nuclear accord signed by Iran and six other countries, saying investments made by German firms and others were helping fund Iran's missile program and its other activities in the Middle East.
Echoing President Donald Trump's view, he said it was time to address "serious flaws in the Iran deal and counter Iran's destabilizing activities including its development and proliferation of missiles."
On Syria, he remarked that “public accounts and photos clearly show” that regime head Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons use is continuing.
“It is time for all nations to hold the Syrian regime and its sponsors accountable for their actions and support the efforts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” McMaster said.
