The United States announced the formation of a new task force aimed at disrupting the land routes leading to Iran, which the US military says are used to transport weapons systems and illicit materials, in a move that the Revolutionary Guard promises to thwart.
The US measure aims to expand the scope of trade restrictions imposed on Iran. For months, Washington has been imposing a naval blockade on the Islamic Republic, and has placed this within the framework of a response to Iran’s obstruction of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has been doing since February 2026 following the outbreak of war.
The US Central Command (Centcom) said in a statement on Saturday (November 7, 2026) that its commander, Brad Cooper, issued directives “to form a task force to support the US government’s efforts to prevent Iran from using land routes to transport advanced weapons and other materials.” The statement added, "Admiral Brad Cooper directed the formation of Task Force Iron Gate, a task force that includes approximately 20 civilian and military personnel," to work "in coordination with other US government agencies to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illicit revenue flows across Iran's land borders and the Caspian Sea."
The statement quoted Cooper as saying that the establishment of the force “reinforces the success of our strict blockade imposed on Iran at sea,” and will contribute to “further restricting Iran’s ability to finance terrorism, rebuild weapons factories, and renew its military arsenal.” The task force will be based in Florida.
Centcom said that the naval blockade, which began in April, prevented Iran from exporting “crude oil worth more than $25 billion,” stressing the continuation of “strict enforcement operations at sea against all ships entering or leaving Iranian ports.”
Commenting on the announcement, the Iranian Fars Agency quoted Revolutionary Guard spokesman Hussein Mohebi as saying, “The United States will never be able to impose the economic blockade that it seeks and proposes under different names and through various plans.” He added, "The Americans will not achieve their goal of exerting maximum economic pressure to cause the collapse and disintegration of the Iranian economy," considering that the United States "will be unable to close" the paths of communication between Iran and neighboring countries.
But will the Iron Gate succeed where the naval blockade failed, and will Washington achieve its goal of strangling Iran economically and forcing it to submit to its conditions?
The success of this new task force and achieving its goals is not easy and depends largely on the cooperation of Iran’s neighbors with the United States. The Caspian Sea is surrounded by Russia, which has close cooperative relations with Iran, in addition to Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. On the land level, Iran shares long borders with Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan.
Since the start of the US naval blockade on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and the restriction of traffic through this vital waterway, the Islamic Republic's import and export operations have begun to shift to passing through its long land borders. Queues of trucks have formed on the Iranian border with Turkey and Pakistan, while reports indicate an increasing number of freight trains coming from China via Asia.
The British newspaper "The Telegraph" quoted military and diplomatic sources as suggesting that the new "Iron Gate" task force should focus on cooperating with allies in the region and exchanging intelligence information with them, in order to monitor and track Iran's efforts to evade sanctions.
Although land transportation is more expensive and complex compared to sea transportation, Tehran is willing to pay this cost in order to survive, according to observers. Thanks to its extensive land borders with seven countries, it has multiple options for cross-border transportation.
Many countries that share long land borders with Iran are considered potential “vulnerabilities” that could undermine any land blockade. This is in addition to some Iranian borders, especially with Afghanistan and Pakistan, which are known as “permeable” borders that are easy to penetrate and where smuggling operations are widespread, according to a report by the German newspaper “Frankfurter Rundschau”.
In this context, Matthew Saville, director of military studies at the British research center “Royal United Services Institute,” expects that intelligence information will be used to track illicit money, or to enable police agencies in allied countries to seize and confiscate components and equipment.
The German newspaper quotes Savile as saying: “Frankly, I expect in this case a certain use of force: launching attacks or carrying out secret ground operations to confiscate these components, whether by American or Israeli forces. They will likely work to exchange intelligence information and exert legal and economic pressure outside the Middle East, especially if they believe that the dual-use components come from the West. But if the shipments are coming from Russia or China, the matter will become more difficult.”
The success of any ground blockade depends on Iran's neighboring countries: Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. But are these countries willing to cooperate with the United States and potentially harm their economic prospects, or risk expanding conflict in the region by imposing restrictions on cross-border trade?
In this context, Hussain Haqqani, the former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, recently wrote that Islamabad would not be willing to sacrifice its long-term ambitions to become a commercial center. Haqqani explained, "The Iranians and Pakistanis seem to believe that the development of these land routes carries long-term strategic importance that will go beyond the current war."
Persuading the Taliban regime in Kabul to cooperate with the United States is also very difficult. There are deep-rooted smuggling networks along the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan, which may constitute a “treasure” for any party seeking to transport illegal goods into or out of Iran. For decades, these routes have been used to smuggle almost everything to and from Iran; From heroin and fuel, to weapons and people.
That is why observers do not expect the “Iron Gate” to achieve its desired goals, stifle the Iranian economy and force Iran to return to the negotiating table and submit to American conditions, to end the war and siege.
