A Pentagon spokesperson contended that “Iran continues to be a malign actor in the region, continues to support terrorism throughout the Middle East and they still pose threats to our partners and friends there… They still have an active ballistic missile program and they have been recently re-spinning centrifuges”. He also noted that the U.S. would support regional allies “against acts of terrorism that Iran continues to propagate throughout the region”, underscoring: “To the degree that we have capabilities to try to deter that activity… we are going to use it”.