Name: Qatar announces arrest of Iran’s IRGC sleeper cells
Uploaded: 2026-03-03T23:04:25.000Z
Duration: 5 min 37 s
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Joining us now from Washington, D.C. is Mark Kimmitt.

He's a retired U.S. general and a former assistant secretary of State for political and military affairs.

Thank you for joining us here on Al Jazeera.

So the president says that Iran's Navy, its air force and its air detection systems have all been destroyed.

What is next then militarily for the president to dispose of?

And how difficult will that be going forward?

Well, I think, as Secretary of State Rubio said, the second phase will be tougher than the first.

Look, I think the target deck as we used to talk about it in the military, started off with leadership targets, worked its way down to missile targets, ballistic missile defense.

It now worked its way down to the Navy to keep the Persian Gulf open.

But there are a lot more targets in that deck that I believe the Americans will prosecute.

One thing that hasn't been attacked is the nuclear facilities for a second time.

But also it doesn't appear to me that any of the ground force elements have been attacked, either either their headquarters, their training areas or their troops.

So it is still what we would call a target rich environment inside of Iran.

And when you talk about the Navy, the president obviously said that the Navy had been destroyed.

He's also said that he's willing to use the US Navy to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

In the mid-1990s, there was a problem going on there.

So the US Navy has had a mission before to escort tankers through the Persian Gulf.

However, it still depends on the insurance companies, as they call them, the names that insure those tankers before they go into the Persian Gulf.

And right now it does not seem as if the insurance companies are willing to take that risk.

General Kimmet, I wanted to ask you, actually hold that thought for just one second.

I want to bring our viewers a little bit more breaking news.

Qatari authorities say they've busted two sleeper cells operating for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

They say that 10 suspects have since been arrested.

General Kimmitt, I want to go back to you there because obviously that does show how involved the Gul states have now gotten in this conflict.

I wonder if the US Has a duty of care here to the nations that host its air bases and its military bases in the region and how that factors into their plans.

Well, the very reason that we have over a couple of dozen bases in the region mean we have A duty of care to those nations.

In fact, the entire purpose of the US Military presence in the region is to protect our allies and.

That area has been quite safe for decades, ever since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

we have sold and worked alongside the countries in the region to develop their capacities, whether it's air defense, whether it is strike aircraft, training troops on the ground, providing them with ground equipment.

There's been a very strong relationship between the Gulf countries in the United States and other Western nations to make sure that those forces are combat ready.

I wonder how it changes the calculation when so many other countries get involved.

When you talk about, you know, Cyprus being hit by drones, when you talk about France now bringing in an aircraft carrier, not necessarily to be party to the conflict, but

for things alongside it, how does that now change the calculation with all of these other countries getting pulled in?

Well, I think that the Iranians made a mistake by trying to intentionally pull these other countries in.

I would suspect that the Iranians felt that by attacking the countries and not just the military bases occupied by the Americans, that they would drive a wedge between the Americans and those countries and try to ask them, in fact, tell the Americans to leave their country.

I think they also believe the strategic bombing campaign, because this is what it is that is being conducted by the Iranians, would so upset the local population that they would force their leaders to tell the Americans to leave.

But in fact, I think what the Iranians have found out is that just like the Russian strategic bombing campaign inside of Ukraine, this has actually hardened the resolve of those countries and where they were before, trying to stay out of the conflict by being attacked, they feel they have no other option but to respond.

That means the United States and its allies will have hundreds more aircraft, hundreds, perhaps thousands of more precision weapons to attack against the Iranians.

I think the Iranians will rethink that decision they made and realize it was the wrong thing to do.