ANALYSIS: How to tackle Iran’s Middle East bellicosity

Moreover and parallel to recent sanctions, which must be executed immediately and without any loopholes, the Iranian people’s organized opposition, resembled in the National Council of Resistance of Iran, should be recognized. This will pave the path for regime change by this coalition without war or military intervention.

Thanks to years of Western appeasement in the face of Iran’s belligerence across the Middle East, evidence of Tehran’s dangerous footprints are now visible in several countries across the region, including even Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

The Trump administration, however, has made it quite vivid its adoption of a firm approach. This stance, signaled in the historic May conference in Riyadh, is long overdue and should be enhanced by Washington supporting the Iranian people’s desire for regime change.

A history of devastation

Iran has a long record of hostility against neighboring countries and US interests in the Middle East. The 1983 bombings targeting the US Embassy and barracks in Beirut, the Khobar Towers attack in 1996, all climaxed in the support Iran provided for Shiite proxies and the Sunni Taliban in their campaign against US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In parallel form, the Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas, two known terrorist groups, have for over 30 years enjoyed contributions from Tehran to fuel sectarianism throughout the Middle East and carry out terrorist attacks.

The Obama administration handed Iraq over to Iran in a silver plate through a strategic mistake of prematurely pulling out all US troops. This paved the path for Iran to further export its “revolution” through a convenient medium of extremist proxies.

The West can literally be accused of standing aside and watching Iran’s aggressive policy. This has rendered a slate of countries, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen feel threatened and/or left utterly devastated from Iran’s meddling on their soil.

Troubling activities

Of late, Iran has been reported to send further weapons and narcotics to Yemen’s Houthis. These drugs are sold to provide income for Iran’s supported militias on the ground in the flashpoint country south of Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s archenemy in the region.

Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) are present in Yemen also to instruct and guide the Houthis in assembling weapons smuggled into the country by Tehran.

“For the last six months the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has begun using waters further up the Gulf between Kuwait and Iran as it looks for new ways to beat an embargo on arms shipments to fellow Shi'ites in the Houthi movement,” Reuters cited Western and Iranian sources.

“Using this new route, Iranian ships transfer equipment to smaller vessels at the top of the Gulf, where they face less scrutiny. The transshipments take place in Kuwaiti waters and in nearby international shipping lanes, the sources said.”

The Iranians are also taking provocative measures against the US Navy in the same region recently, viewed by analysts as actions to learn the limits of US President Donald Trump. On July 26th an armed Iranian patrol boat closed within less than 150 meters of the USS Thunderbolt, yielding back only in response to warning shots fired by a US Navy ship.

Such developments are reasons why Trump contacted his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron “to explore how to increase cooperation in addressing the ongoing crises in Syria and Iraq and countering Iranian malign influence,” according to a White House readout.

Positive steps forward

Despite the utterly wrong decision of EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini visiting Tehran for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s inauguration, the Trump administration is sending push-back signals and making Iran learn its aggressions will not go without cost.

This is a necessary and welcomed shift in Washington’s foreign policy.

President Trump has signed into law a strong bipartisan Congressional initiative imposing strict sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea. The IRGC is now considered a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group. Considering the Guards’ control over at least 40 percent of Iran’s entire economy, this raises the stakes for companies considering doing business with Tehran.

It would be wise to reconsider investing in Iran’s $400 billion economy and ponder placing one’s bets in other regional countries, or say, the United States’ $19 trillion establishment.

And in news that most certainly raised eyebrows in Tehran, Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr visited Saudi Arabia recently and called for the controversial Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Units in his country to be dissolved now that the Islamic State has been defeated.

The nuclear deal

High hopes were placed in the nuclear deal sealed between the P5+1 and Iran, which Obama hoped to leave behind as his foreign policy legacy.

Two years down this road it has become vivid that Iran’s behavior has not changed, to say the least. In fact, Tehran’s support for Hezbollah and other extremist entities have escalated. Iran’s role in the Middle East, namely Syria, Iraq and Yemen have been horrifically destructive.

The Trump administration can lead the international community in instituting the first real and effective initiative against the Iranian regime.

Any trade with Tehran should hinge on:

- the regime halting all executions and human rights violations,
- withdrawing their forces from Syria and Iraq, and severing any ties and support for terrorist groups,
- completely stopping missile activities, especially ballistic missile production and tests,

- ending all nuclear initiatives and providing true “anytime, anywhere” access to all suspected sites, including military facilities.

Moreover and parallel to recent sanctions, which must be executed immediately and without any loopholes, the Iranian people’s organized opposition, resembled in the National Council of Resistance of Iran, should be recognized. This will pave the path for regime change by this coalition without war or military intervention.

Failure in this regard is tantamount to aiding Tehran’s regime.

Source:ANALYSIS: How to tackle Iran’s Middle East bellicosity

Opinion: Couple US sanctions with Middle East expulsion of Iran

Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), welcomed the adoption of a bill by both chambers of the US Congress which imposes new sanctions on the Iranian regime for violating human rights and pursuing ballistic missiles.

  By: Shahriar Kia  2017-08-01 

  

The Iranian regime is attempting to secure a corridor through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, providing a supply route for its numerous terrorist proxies in the region.

Iran’s clandestine nuclear and ballistic missile drive, support for terrorism and domestic crackdown are all aimed at maintaining the Tehran’s fascist mullahs in power and pursue their regional policies.

This notorious objective, in direct conflict with those of the regional and global coalitions to fight terrorism and extremism, can be stopped. Eviction of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and all its proxy forces from the Middle East must complete the new US Congress sanctions. With President Donald Trump signaling his approval, this first and foremost step should be taken with hesitation following the sanctions.

The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to rally major new sanctions on Iran, parallel to measures on North Korea and Russia. To impose additional sanctions on Iran’s defense sector, the House voted 419-3. Coming after three weeks of negotiations, this bill “tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries,” explained House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), welcomed the adoption of a bill by both chambers of the US Congress which imposes new sanctions on the Iranian regime for violating human rights and pursuing ballistic missiles.

“Since several years ago, the Iranian Resistance had urged the terrorist designation of the IRGC, as it preserves the entirety of the clerical regime and acts as its main apparatus for domestic suppression and export of terrorism and fundamentalism,” she stressed. “However, the policy of appeasing the mullahs’ religious dictatorship paved the way for the IRGC and its proxies’ rampage in the entire region.”

A look back at the pivotal role Iran played in the rise and flourishing of ISIS, parallel to sectarian conflicts in the region, will help find the right tracks for security in the region.

In 2008, a joint campaign led by the U.S. military and Iraqi Sunnis rooted al-Qaeda in Iraq, the precursor to ISIS. However, the Obama administration’s decision to pull back and deliver the country to former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, a close ally of the Iranian regime, eventually led to the unraveling of all previous achievements.

Maliki dismantled the Iraqi “Awakening Council” and gave Iran free pass to exert its full influence on Iraq’s political and military apparatus.

In tandem, the destruction and crimes committed by the IRGC and Bashar al-Assad regime against the Syrian people provided the prefect breeding ground for sectarian strife and allowed ISIS to occupy a wide swath of land straddling both countries.

The Iranian regime became the main beneficiary of the rampage caused by ISIS and subsequently used it as an excuse to expand its clout by forming and later legalizing the IRGC-equivalent Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). This entity has become notoriously renowned for its crimes against humanity, no less horrendous than those committed by ISIS.

Iran’s highest officials have time and again acknowledged funding and supporting the criminal militia forces in Iraq and Syria, expressing their vested interest in occupying neighboring countries through whatever means.

The Obama administration’s hands-off approach vis-à-vis Iran’s regional ambitions provided Tehran a far better opportunity to pursue its nefarious agendas under the pretext of fighting ISIS. Speculations raised U.S. officials on possible cooperation with Iran in the fight against terrorism only made matters worse.

Now, as ISIS is losing influence and ground, Iran is attempting to fill the gap. Letting it have its way would be a recipe for disaster, as proven in the past eight years.

Despite the threats and taunts broadcasted regularly Iran’s state media, the regime is far from capable or inclined to enter open warfare with any other state in the region or across the globe.

Tehran’s proxies are only as good as the funding and supplies the regime provides. Without IRGC support Iran’s proxies will be hard-pressed to spread their mayhem in the region.

Sanctions alone, however, will not be enough. Tehran has found ways to continue causing mischief under the toughest sanctions regime.

The threats rendered by Tehran will only end with regime change in Iran. This will initially benefit the people of Iran, being the first victims of this regime’s criminal ideology, and categorically reject its destructive foreign policy, both inside the country and abroad.

One of the greatest manifestations of the Iranian people’s desire for change was expressed at the July 1st Free Iran gathering in paris. Tens of thousands of Iranian expats as well as politicians, activists and religious figures from across the world attended the rally to express their solidarity and support for the cause of freedom and democracy in Iran.

The event had a clear message: regime change in Iran is the only viable solution for both the people of Iran and the region’s nations. There’s no need for another foreign conflict. The people of Iran and their organized resistance have the will, power and means necessary to realize this change.

Saudi Prince Turki Al Faisal also addressed the massive gathering.

“So, you have coming together now a mighty coalition of forces, joining with the Resistance, and that should give us hope that we can make that [regime] change,” he stressed.

*Shahriar Kia is an Iranian dissident and a political analyst on Iran and the Middle East. He is a member of the Iranian opposition and a graduate of North Texas University.

Source:Opinion: Couple US sanctions with Middle East expulsion of Iran

Why is Trump dithering on Iran?

President Donald Trump is welcomed with bouquets of flowers May 20 on his arrival to King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. While there, he launched a head-on challenge to the Iranian regime, denouncing Iran as the Middle East's main sponsor of terror. White House Photo by Andrea Hanks/UPI 

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July 10 (UPI) -- Last week, ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump urged Moscow to end its support for Syria and Iran.

This came on the back of Trump's first foreign visit as U.S. President to Saudi Arabia in May where he launched a head-on challenge to the Iranian regime, denouncing Iran as the Middle East's main sponsor of terror. He didn't mince his words, stating: "From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms and trains terrorists, militias and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region."

Trump urged the leaders of more than 50 predominantly Sunni Muslim states to "drive out" the extremists in their nations, as he branded the mullahs' theocratic regime as: "a government that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel and death to America."

To underscore his commitment to confronting Tehran he sealed a deal to sell a massive $110 billion of arms to the Saudis, clearly intending that these weapons be used to counter Iran's aggressive expansionism in the Middle East.

It is now almost two months since Trump's explosive speech in Riyadh and yet nothing much has happened. Why has the U.S. administration not yet listed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as an international terrorist organization? Its extra-territorial wing - the Qods Force - has been on the terrorist blacklist for years, but its parent body the IRGC continues to support Bashar al-Assad's bloody civil war in Syria, the vicious Shiite militias in Iraq and the brutal Houthi rebels in Yemen.

IRGC support for the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon has long been a source of deep concern in the West.

Listing the IRGC as international terrorists would send the clearest signal yet that Donald Trump means business and that he is not "all hat and no cattle."

The West assumed that the U.S. administration's U-turn on the policy of appeasement pursued by Barack Obama had signalled a step-change in the way Trump intended to deal with the turbaned tyrants in Tehran. Iraq, which used to provide the foremost barrier against the Iranian regime prior to the U.S. invasion in 2003, has now become the most important hub for its support for Assad and for threatening other countries in the region, such as Lebanon and Yemen.

The Iranians almost control Iraq. Following his Riyadh speech, many Middle East observers expected Trump to demand the total eviction of the Iranian regime and its proxies from Iraq. But instead, U.S. warplanes are still providing air support to IRGC-led and -funded Shiite militias who, under the pretext of ousting Daesh (ISIS) from cities like Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul, are engaged in a genocidal campaign against the Sunni population of al Anbar and Ninawa provinces, murdering thousands of innocent civilians.

By concentrating its efforts on obtaining a dominant position in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, Iran is endeavouring to secure pathways traversing Iran's western borders through the Euphrates and Tigris valleys and the vast expanses of desert in Iraq and Syria, providing a link to Hezbollah in Lebanon and finally ending at the edge of the Golan Heights. These corridors will serve as conduits through which military supplies and military personnel can be sent to the battlefronts where Iranian proxies are actively engaged.

To this end, dozens of Quds Force affiliated military and political bases have been formed west of Mosul, under the guise of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units militia forces.

Earlier this month, at a major "Free Iran" gathering in Paris which drew tens of thousands of Iranian expatriates and their international supporters, dozens of senior former U.S. military officials and politicians from the U.S., Europe and the Arab world were unanimous in their call that the solution to the Middle East's crises is the expulsion of the IRGC from the region. As a practical step after the Riyadh summit, the speakers argued, the U.S. could add the IRGC to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

The Riyadh summit's recognition of Iran as the main sponsor of terror and chaos in the Middle East marked a breakthrough in U.S. relations with the Saudis and other Sunni Muslim nations. But if President Trump intends to show the world that he is not simply all bluff and bluster, he must stop dithering and follow up his robust Riyadh remarks with tough action, including the blacklisting of the IRGC, the eviction of Iran and its proxies from Iraq and a common front to oust Assad and end the civil war in Syria.

Struan Stevenson is president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association. He served as a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), as president of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and as chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (caucus) from 2004-14. He is an award-winning author and international lecturer on the Middle East.

Source:Why is Trump dithering on Iran?