By Amir Basiri
Iran is engaging in an unprecedented
buildup of military assets thanks to the billions obtained through the
Obama-brokered and highly flawed nuclear deal. Iran’s military leaders are
boasting of carrying out a transformation of their fighting capabilities,
giving the regime the option of becoming an offensive juggernaut
throughout the Gulf region. Such claims are already the source of major
concern amongst senior figures in Washington.
Late April reports from inside Iran cited
officials describing a 145% increase in the defense budget under the tenure of
the so-called “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani and the regime’s military forces
aiming to launch a massive restructuring with the objective of becoming a
force always on the initiative.
Since the implementation of the Iran
nuclear deal, senior regime officials have used the resulting windfall to
purchase new military hardware and additional armaments. Note that there is no
mention of using such funds for the greater good of the Iranian people,
despite a high percentage living in poverty. Iran has also signed huge
multimillion-dollar contracts with Russia.
Senior U.S. officials and members of
Congress have major suspicions that Iran is using a significant portion of the
highly controversial $1.7 billion in cash provided by the Obama administration
to back its network of terrorist groups spread across the Middle East.
Such disturbing disclosures have raised
new concerns over the use of U.S. cash provided to Iran -- the “leading state
sponsor of terrorism”, in the words of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson -- to
adopt a more aggressive approach in the face of U.S. forces stationed across
the already flashpoint region.
Iran’s military additions were announced
by Brigadier General Kiumars Heidari during ceremonies marking the regime’s
Army Day. Despite the lack of attention such an announcement gained in Western
mainstream media, insiders of the national security community are known to have
been discussing the issue for the past few weeks.
Iran’s objective is to transform its army
into a force with “offensive” capabilities, signaling a significant overhaul
from its support role for the leading Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), considered Tehran’s primary
force.
Boosting its logistical, weaponry, and
support capabilities are the goals the Iranian regime hopes to revamp in its
classic army. Experts are analyzing this announcement as a major policy
shift in the Iranian military, with a far-reaching potential of making Tehran
capable of intervening across Persian Gulf region. This is a sensitive area
where the U.S. military already enjoys noteworthy influence and presence.
Iran channeling the cash it received under
the nuclear deal for its military apparatus should come as no surprise, and the
Obama administration had even predicted such a scenario. Former Secretary of
State John Kerry acknowledged some of the money Iran received in sanctions
relief would go to groups considered terrorists, according to a CNN report.
Iran also has a long history of funneling
billions to its military and paramilitary programs. Iran used the currency
windfall gained from the European Union through the period of 1998 to 2005 to
invest heavily in its clandestine nuclear and missile programs. Ironically, the
person at the helm of these efforts was none other than the regime’s then
secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Hassan Rouhani, who is now
wrongly and naively dubbed a “reformist” by various parties in the West.
Concerns are being raised about the safety
of American forces in the Middle East, among reports of Iranian
forces continuing to harass U.S. Navy ships. (Although rest assured, the regime
in Iran may talk the talk, but will not walk the walk to provoking a serious
military confrontation with the U.S. and its allies in the region.)
Capitol Hill is already witnessing a
renewed push to reinstall economic sanctions against the regime in Tehran.
Knowing their window of opportunity will end this fall at the latest, the
Iranian regime is using this period to the utmost extent. Tehran is continuously
expanding its arsenal while saber-rattling against U.S. allies in the
region by taking advantage of the Obama administration’s refusal to beef up
sanctions.
As the Trump administration
weighs its options on Iran, designating the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization
would send the right signal to the mullahs. Already in control over vast
portions of the country’s economy, the IRGC also plays a major role in domestic
crackdowns and human rights violations, Iran’s
meddling in the region and involvement in Syria, and spearheads
the regime’s nuclear program and ballistic missile ambitions.
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