The top American military commander in the Middle East told lawmakers Thursday that US strikes have left Iran a shadow of its former self militarily, but that Tehran can still rattle global shipping through words alone.

“Iran has a significantly degraded threat, and they no longer threaten regional partners, or the United States, in ways that they were able to do before, across every domain,” Adm. Brad Cooper, who heads US Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “They’ve been significantly degraded.”

Cooper said Iran’s armed proxies had launched more than 350 attacks on US troops and diplomats in the 30 months before the recent war, killing four American soldiers. That picture, he said, has fundamentally changed.

“Today, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis are all cut off from Iran’s weapons supply and support,” Cooper said. “This result was not foreordained.”

Iran, he added, now has only 10 percent of its drone stockpile remaining. Cooper also said American forces have shifted away from using expensive high-end munitions to shoot down Iranian drones, and are now deploying lower-cost alternatives.

Cooper: “U.S. Central Command was created in direct response to the threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has terrorized the region and made hostility to the U.S. a core tenet of its rule. In less than 40 days, CENTCOM forces achieved our military objectives. With 90% of its defense industrial base destroyed, Iran won’t be able to reconstitute those weapons for years.”

Yet Cooper cautioned that Iran’s diminished arsenal has not stripped it of influence. “Their voice is very loud, and the threats are clearly heard by the merchant industry and the insurance industry,” he said, noting that Tehran can still disrupt commercial shipping through rhetoric alone. The US military retains the ability to escort vessels through the Strait of Hormuz and has a wide range of contingencies prepared, he said, but deferred to policymakers on next steps given what he described as a “time of sensitive negotiations.”

Despite the battlefield damage, Cooper told the committee that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remains deeply entrenched inside Iran. Asked by Sen. Angus King (I-ME) who is running the country, Cooper said the IRGC is still “exercising significant authority,” while declining to address whether the paramilitary force is part of ongoing peace talks — referring that question to diplomats and negotiators.

Cooper also highlighted an unexpected beneficiary of the conflict: American military doctrine. He told the committee that US forces have adopted battlefield lessons from Ukraine, particularly in countering drone swarms — the same tactic Iran used against American troops.

“We adopted a large number of tactics, techniques and procedures that the Ukrainians have passed us that have helped us defend Americans,” Cooper said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)