National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on ‘Private Communication’ to Iran

Oct. 15, 2023, (EIRNS)—National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, on “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, Oct. 15, was asked about the second carrier task force (USS Dwight D. Eisenhower group) Biden sent—Why a second carrier task force? The Biden Administration had already ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford battle group to the Eastern Mediterranean on Oct. 9.

Sullivan answered, in part:

“Lebanese Hezbollah, a proxy force of Iran, is there, a raid on Israel’s northern border with considerable military capacity and a history of attacking the State of Israel. And in fact, we have seen in the last few days skirmishes across that northern border that only enhances the risk of escalation. But of course, we can’t rule out that Iran would choose to get directly engaged in some way; we have to prepare for every possible contingency....

“We have means of communicating privately with Iran. And we have availed ourselves of those means over the past few days to make clear privately that which we have said publicly.”

Gen. Frank McKenzie (ret.), former Commander of CENTCOM (2019-2022), was the last guest on the program, and replied to a question about Sullivan’s remarks: “So, I think the second carrier is designed to send a strong message to Iran that ... they’re not going to be able to act with malice to get into this conflict. We would like to keep them out of