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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Fox News liveblog: Israeli special ops veteran urges US to make Iran's IRGC 'paranoid' with covert attacks
2026-08-05


Israeli special ops veteran urges US to make Iran's IRGC 'paranoid' with covert attacks
The U.S. must shift its strategy against Iran, an Israeli special operations veteran warned Tuesday while arguing that Washington should target the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) support network rather than using conventional military strikes.

“This is not conventional warfare. This is unconventional warfare,” Aaron Cohen said on Fox News' "Fox News @ Night."

“This is what the colonel and I refer to as low-intensity conflict. Special operations units, clandestine units, the CIA, Mossad, Navy SEALs, Delta, CAG — all of them were stood up in the 1950s specifically to be able to deal with this low-intensity conflict.”

“The real soft white underbelly here to really bend the mullahs, Trace, is going to be focusing operations on the support structure of the mullahs,” he said, describing how the regime is “built to be able to withstand military pressure.”

“Every time we hit them, what do they do? They stand up and say, ‘Great Satan can’t hit us with their explosions.’”

Cohen also said the U.S. military needs to be “attacking the middle, which is the IRGC, the money makers, the intelligence support apparatus.”

“Start hitting them. Start killing them, Trace. Start attacking them in their streets so that they get paranoid.”

“Israel has the intelligence, and I’m hoping that Trump sees the only way to actually bend the will of the mullahs is to make it so that the people who support them fear that the mullahs can no longer protect them,” he added.

WHAT TO KNOW
  • President Donald Trump claims that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and denuclearize Tehran is "imminent."

  • Iranian officials have denied participating in direct talks with the U.S., saying Monday that they are negotiating with mediators in Oman.

  • A Liberia-flagged cargo ship became the fourth vessel since Friday to be attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, forcing the crew to abandon the ship. One crew member remains missing.

  • Iran and Oman advanced negotiations on a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz allowing ships to enter the Persian Gulf through an Iranian-controlled route and exit through a route controlled by Oman.

  • President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, with the two leaders discussing efforts to reduce regional tensions and narrow differences between the United States and Iran.

  • Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in part of a televised interview that he would not resign after a senior cleric claimed he had repeatedly threatened to do so.
Posted by:Skidmark

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