Iran's Missiles and US Sanctions

NEWSMAX

An Iranian  military truck carries parts of an air defence missile system during a parade on the occasion of the country's Army Day

NEWSMAX,  20 Jun 2017--  On June 18, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched several midrange missiles from western Iran across Iraq and hit sources in Syria of Islamic State (ISIS) attacks on Tehran on June 7. In the context of these strikes, consider revelations about Iran’s missile sites on June 20 by the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) office in the United States (The People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, PMOI aka Mujahedeen-e-Khalq MEK is the largest unit in the NCRI.)

Nuclear negotiations between Iran and the major powers began during 2013 and culminated in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. Thereafter, the IRGC intensified its activities to develop and expand Tehran’s missile program based on orders of the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, per the NCRI revelations on June 20.

Evidence:

The NCRI verified locations of over three dozen centers involved in the production, testing, and launching of missiles by the IRGC. A dozen of these sites were exposed for the first time. The NCRI identified 42 IRGC missile centers involved in production, testing, storage, launch, and command. There are 15 that are part of Tehran’s missile manufacturing network.

The centers for building and testing missiles are in Iran’s central regions. Sites for medium-range ballistic missile launches are mostly in Iran’s western mountain regions, and central regions. In the southern provinces, missile launch centers are aimed at the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. The location of these centers across Iran suggests IRGC missile objectives are oriented toward Iran’s western and southern borders.

The Nuclear Deal and U.S. Sanctions

The nuclear accord imposes few restrictions on Iran regarding ballistic missiles and does not prohibit new sanctions from being levied on Iran. UNSCR 2231, which gave international legal authority to the nuclear deal, “called upon (Iran) not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons,” but Tehran vowed to ignore the Resolution. UNSCR 2231 does not prohibit new sanctions from being imposed on Iran, providing an occasion for President Trump to review the nuclear deal. The president told Secretary Tillerson on April 19 to announce Iran is in compliance with the accord but also said the National Security Council (NSC) had 90 days to finish the review, which is coming up in July.
Meanwhile, on June 15, The Senate voted 98-2 in favor of a bill to impose new U.S. sanctions to target Iran’s ballistic missile program, its support for terrorism, and human rights violations.

The Way Forward

First, one outcome of the NSC review should be that the nuclear deal be modified to include ballistic missile research, development, and testing by Tehran. Trump should order the NSC to consider the testimony during passage of the June sanctions bill to justify pressing Iran to accept new restraints on its missiles. And the president should insist the NSC and State include evidence proffered by the NCRI on June 20 to justify revisions of the accord.

Second, the review should mention the NCRI as having provided valid evidence on prior violations by the Iranian regime regarding nuclear sites, testing of trigger mechanisms for nuclear weapons, and the most recent revelations on June 20 concerning ballistic missiles. The NCRI office on Pennsylvania Ave is a stone’s throw from the White House. If its delegation met with the president in the Oval Office and briefed his NSC staff in the Situation Room, it would indicate the tide is turning even further against Tehran. Such sessions with the main opposition to Tehran would place pressure on Iran to renegotiate the nuclear deal.

Third, if President Trump tweets about the Iran Freedom Rally on July 1 in Paris, he will see policies espoused there don’t require compromising on his policy of putting “America first.”

A bipartisan group of present and former legislators have attended or plan to attend the rally. Even more noteworthy, on April 14, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., visited Albania to meet with NCRI officials, including its president-elect, Maryam Rajavi .

There is support across the aisle in Congress to back the NCRI. It has received about three decades of bipartisan congressional support. See H.Con.Res.159, introduced in Nov. 2016 by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., and ranking member Elliot Engel, D-N.Y., as well as Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.

Although it is standard operating procedure for American Embassy officials to accompany congressional delegations (CODELS), it is remarkable that the Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission and many of our Embassy staff in Tirana were in the presence of NCRI officials. It is hard to conceive of that situation occurring in the Obama era!

 

Prof. Raymond Tanter (@AmericanCHR) served as a senior member on the Middle East Desk of the National Security Council staff in the Reagan-Bush administration, Personal Representative of the Secretary of Defense to international security and arms control talks in Europe, and is now Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. Tanter is on the comprehensive list of conservative writers and columnists who appear in The Wall Street Journal, Townhall.com, National Review, The Weekly Standard, Human Events, The American Spectator, and now in Newsmax. To read more of his reports

Former Italian FM: It's time for Europe to align itself with the US in standing up to Iran

Giulio Terzi, June 2014 – The Grand Gathering of Iranians in Paris

Fox News, Jun 18, 2017 - Since the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany concluded their nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, several Iranian ballistic missile tests have been carried out. It is one of several facts that leaves no doubt about the persistence of defiant attitudes and threats to the international community coming out of the Iranian regime.
Even though such tests are plain violations of a UN Security Council resolution that accompanied implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the global media and the nations of Europe have given unfortunately little attention to the issue. Under the previous administration, the White House downplayed such activities, which are obvious violations of the spirit of the closely-guarded JCPOA. Washington’s apparent dismissiveness also set the tone for the responses of European officials.

President Donald Trump is, rightly, developing an assertive policy toward the Islamic Republic. This includes a sharper focus on illicit ballistic missile tests. When the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) conducted another such test in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s inauguration, his administration responded by putting the Islamic Republic “on notice” over its destabilizing activities in the region. More recently, the White House has moved to new sanctions on the ballistic missile program. The U.S. Senate voted almost unanimously Friday to impose new sanctions on Iran (and Russia) for its missile program among other activities.

The modest limits imposed on the Iranian nuclear program will be worthless if the Islamic Republic emerges from the nuclear agreement with improved delivery systems which - being capable of reaching the whole of Europe - would constitute an immediate threat for European security and peace.

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The European governments must quickly follow suit. The EU and the global media have been slow to adapt to the new geopolitical reality, and Tehran remains barely deterred from its brazenness. As a result the world paid little attention late in May when the IRGC announced that it had completed work on a third underground facility for the production of ballistic missiles.

The modest limits imposed on the Iranian nuclear program will be worthless if the Islamic Republic emerges from the nuclear agreement with improved delivery systems which - being capable of reaching the whole of Europe - would constitute an immediate threat for European security and peace. Already, Iran’s illicit tests demonstrate the capability of hitting Israel and Western assets throughout the Arab world. It is little wonder, then, that Israel, Saudi Arabia and others expressed mutual anxiety about the growth of Iranian power and influence on the occasion of President Trump’s recent visit to the region.

The EU has remained reluctant and hesitant about standing up to Iran’s destabilizing behavior and disregard for international rules. This has much to do with a false narrative and the political environment encouraged by the JCPOA. European leaders and businesses are ill-advisedly rushing – at their own risk - to gain access to Iranian oil and market. The IRGC currently controls more than half of the Iranian gross domestic product: it is nearly impossible to invest in the Islamic Republic without financing directly or indirectly the nuclear-capable missile program, as well as terrorist organizations and Iranian military interventions and “ethnic cleansing” in the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.

The multiple functions of the IRGC also call attention to the fact that Iranian missile development does not exist in isolation. It has an impact on the types of capabilities that Iran is able to share with other entities which pose significant threats on their own. It is thanks to Iranian missiles that the Houthi rebels in Yemen have been able to penetrate deep into Saudi Arabian territory and target Western vessels around the Arabian Peninsula. The Islamic Republic also has a record of arming Lebanese Hezbollah, their proxies in Iraq and Syria, and Palestinian terrorist organizations… 

The White House is engaging in a more assertive policy vis-a-vis Iran.  European policymakers and public opinion must do their part. They should exert pressure on the EU and its national governments before their laxity leads to Iran taking a central role in a much larger crisis. They should look to the Iranian people and the expatriate community. They need to firmly support the forces of a truly democratic opposition, the values of freedom and human dignity those forces are striving for, and their fight against the clerical regime.

This message will be emphasized on July 1 in Paris, when the National Council of Resistance of Iran holds its Iran Freedom rally, with the participation of tens of thousands of Iranian expatriates, hundreds of high-profile figures from political, academic, and military backgrounds, and intelligence personalities from Europe, the United States, and many other countries. As on previous occasions - and even more now in an increasingly unstable Iranian environment - millions of Iranians will follow the event via satellite, taking personal risks, as a clear indication that the Iranian people support the NCRI and the measures the Council suggests. This, too, is a clear message that Europeans must recognize as a key reference in shaping their foreign policy. 

“The Iranian regime's longest-suffering victims are its own people,” President Trump said during his May visit to Saudi Arabia. “Until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for peace, all nations of conscience must work together to isolate Iran, deny it funding for terrorism.” But terrorism is not the only issue. The regime’s weapons development must be severely constrained. And European nations need to get on board.

Rajavi Proposes Three-Prong Initiative for Addressing Iran

Posted on June 16, 2017by Masoud Dalvand

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) President-elect Maryam Rajavirecently spoke at a gathering entitled “Interfaith Solidarity Against Extremism”. The meeting included a number of prominent personalities from Arab countries and the Muslim community in France and was held on June 3, during the holy month of Ramadan.

She praised the initiatives taken by the various Arab and Muslim nations at their summit in Riyadh, where they declared the clerical regime has deprived the region and world of tranquility and stability, and that its activities in the Middle East and throughout the world are destructive. The Saudi and U.S. leaders also reiterated that the people of Iran are the first and longest-suffering victims of that regime.

“Over the past 38 years in Iran, the ruling mullahs have occasionally made deceptive claims of favoring reform and moderation. What has been permanent and not ever changed, however, is the gross violations of human rights and brutal suppression. On the regional level, the regime has always sought to dominate through invasions and promotion of fundamentalism and sectarianism under the name of Islam,” said Rajavi during her remarks.

Additionally, she noted that the regime has remained in power due to its determination to dominate and invade other countries, which is a behavior that Rajavi doesn’t see the regime giving up easily. Rajavi noted that the regime uses conflicts outside of its borders to suppress an uprising within the borders of Iran.

As a result, Rajavi proposed a three-pronged initiative on behalf of the Iranian people and the Resistance.

“Firstly, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the main operative advancing all the clerical regime’s policies in the region, must be officially recognized and declared as a terrorist entity. The presence of this criminal force and its proxy militias in Middle Eastern countries must not be tolerated and they must be evicted all together from those countries,” said Rajavi.

She also encouraged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to expel Iran and grant its seat to the Iranian Resistance. Finally, Rajavi noted that the international community needs to recognize the struggle of the Iranian people to overthrow the regime, calling for the Resistance to be acknowledged as the force attempting to establish freedom and democracy in Iran.

Throughout her remarks, Rajavi also pointed out that terrorism and fundamentalism are contrary to the Islamic religion, which is based on brotherhood and tolerance. The gathering also included a photo exhibition dedicated to the martyrs of the Iranian and Syrian resistance.

via  Rajavi Proposes Three-Prong Initiative for Addressing Iran — The Media Express