Vice President Kamala Harris has named Iran as the US’s top “adversary,” pointing to the recent Iranian missile attack on Israel, which came in response to multiple Israeli escalations.
When asked in her 60 Minutes interview which country she believed was the US’s “greatest adversary,” Harris said, “I think there’s an obvious one in mind, which is Iran.”
She continued, “Iran has American blood on their hands. And what we saw in terms of just this attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles, what we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power, that is one of my highest priorities.”
Harris was then asked if she had proof Iran had nuclear weapons and if she would take military action, and responded, “I’m not gonna talk about hypotheticals at this moment.”
While there is always much hype around Iran’s nuclear program, which is strictly for civilian purposes, CIA Director William Burns acknowledged on Monday that there’s no evidence Iran has decided to build a nuclear weapon.
Both Harris and former President Donald Trump are running on platforms of being extremely pro-Israel and hawkish on Iran. Trump said last week that Israel should strike Iranian nuclear facilities, criticizing President Biden for cautioning against the idea.
Harris’s claim that Iran is the US’s top adversary goes against the official line of the Biden administration that China is the greatest foreign threat facing the US. The Pentagon’s 2022 National Defense Strategy labels China the “most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security strategy,” with Russia coming in second. Iran is lumped into a category of “persistent threats” that includes North Korea and organizations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Harris still took a hawkish tone with China, saying the US must “win the competition for the 21st century with China.” When asked if she would defend Taiwan if it was attacked by China, Harris again said she wouldn’t “get into hypotheticals.”
President Biden has repeatedly vowed that he would intervene if China attacks Taiwan, breaking from decades of strategic ambiguity around the issue. The US military is also openly planning for a future war with China despite the risk of nuclear war.
