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It must focus on weakening the regime’s internal stability through economic pressure, covert action and psychological warfare aimed at eroding the leadership’s confidence and sowing divisions within.

Covert action offers deniability but may not satisfy the political need to visibly restore deterrence, says Christopher Clary of the University at Albany in the US.

The form of this response, be it a direct military strike, cyberwarfare, or a covert action has not been publicly revealed.

Using some of the same tools he had employed in Southeast Asia — covert action, realpolitik analysis and an unshakable confidence in his own intelligence — he pushed the United States into a war he knew little about.

Justifying his decision, Kissinger told a committee staff member, “Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.”