Iran’s missile program stepped up after nuclear deal

Iran’s missile program stepped up after nuclear deal

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Less than a week after the U.S. Senate adopted sweeping new sanctions targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and two days after Tehran launched a series of missiles at territories inside Syria while claiming to target ISIS, the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) held a press conference in Washington on Tuesday, June 20, unveiling new information about dozens of IRGC missile sites.

On the orders of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the IRGC has accelerated its ballistic missile activities and tests following the Iran nuclear deal, representatives of the NCRI U.S. Office said.

Sources associated with the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the main NCRI coalition member, and inside Iran’s Defense Ministry and IRGC, confirmed Khamenei has specifically tasked the IRGC Aerospace Force to carry out this initiative.

The locations of 42 sites were verified by the Iranian opposition, all being affiliated to the IRGC’s production, testing, and launching of missiles.

“A dozen of these sites were revealed for the very first time. Among the 42 sites, 15 are part of the regime’s missile manufacturing network,” said NCRI U.S. Office Deputy Director Alireza Jafarzadeh in the press conference. “These 15 centers include several factories related to a missile industry group and together form a web of dozens of missile production facilities,” he added.

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The PMOI/MEK sources were able to provide intelligence on four very important missile sites located in the cities of Semnan in the east of Tehran, Lar in south-central Iran, Khorramabad in western Iran and near the city of Karaj, west of Tehran. Iran has only recognized two of these sites as ballistic missile facilities.

These IRGC missile sites have been constructed based on blueprints provided by North Korea and experts from Pyongyang have been on the scene throughout the process, according to PMOI/MEK sources.

During the past two decades, the Iranian opposition has provided the international community with accurate reports of Iran’s clandestine nuclear and ballistic missile activities. The recent revelations made in Washington make the sanctions proposed by the Senate all the more necessary to adopt a firm policy against Tehran.

Iranian officials are in consensus on the need for nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload, all in order to maintain their grip on power. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani underscored in late May how the regime’s missile activities will go forward unabated.

Tehran is known as the central banker of international terrorism. Iran’s meddling in neighboring countries and support for terrorist proxy groups in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen has already plunged the region into an inferno.

On that note, Iran’s state-run Mashreq daily wrote on Iran launching missiles into Syria on Sunday:

“Although Iran had many different options to respond to ISIS’ terrorist attack, it chose to launch missiles from its soil… this may have messages for Washington.”

“The primary reason for launching these missiles was in no way ISIS,” Jafarzadeh said.

U.S. officials, alongside their Arab counterparts in the recent Riyadh conference, underscored strong positions against Tehran and it meddling across the region. Targeting ISIS and claiming these attacks were in response to the June 7th terrorist attacks in Tehran are only pretexts for the mullahs’ hollow threats.

Prior to Iran’s measures having any military weight, these actions are aimed at elevating morale amongst ranks and files, especially the IRGC. These elements are currently terrified as the U.S. has become active in Syria, intensified its sanctions against Tehran, and America’s top diplomat emphasizing a policy of supporting regime change during their evaluation of a comprehensive Iran policy.

It has become a known fact that Tehran lacks the capacity and will to halt is ballistic missile policy.

“There is no difference between a change in behavior and regime change,” Khamenei stressed on May 10th.

In contrast to the ruling mullahs in Tehran, the Iranian people welcome change and deploy the regime’s nuclear and missile programs, and abhor their meddling across the region.

It is high time the international community adopted a united and firm policy on Iran based on the following pillars:

Imposing sweeping sanctions targeting Iran’s missile program and blacklisting the IRGC for its role in directing Iran’s support of terrorism.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/06/irans_missile_program_stepped_up_after_nuclear_deal.html#ixzz4kkGQuudO
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Rouhani’s Reelection Solves Nothing

Ayatollah Khamenei's theocratic regime is crumbling, and the recent reelection of Hassan Rouhani serves only to hasten its decline, argues Ali Safavi.

Rouhani

sually, the hope is that after an election a country can move forward, the new leader’s agenda bolstered by a popular mandate. That is not the case with Iran. Hassan Rouhani’s second term as president was far from a win for Iran’s economy, Iran’s international standing, and certainly not for Iran’s people.

What Is the Right U.S. Policy on Iran

Iranian women protest election irregularities in 2009 (Photo: Getty Images)

United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson responded to a variety of very serious questions raised by House of Representatives members in a recent hearing focusing on U.S. policy vis-à-vis Iran. Representative Ted Poe (R) from Texas touched on what many believe is the ultimate issue when he said:

الكشف عن مراكز انتاج صواريخ برنامج ايران النووي

خامنئي هو الذي يصدر أوامر إطلاق الصواريخ

الكشف عن مراكز انتاج صواريخ برنامج ايران النووي

المؤتمر الصحافي للمعارضة الايرانية حول برنامج الصواريخ المرتبط ببرنامج ايران النووي  

«إيلاف» من لندن: كشفت المعارضة الايرانية النقاب عن 42 مركزاً لانتاج وتجريب وإطلاق الصواريخ المرتبطة بالبرنامج النووي الايراني، حيث تتولي قوات الحرس 

الثوري هذا المشروع من خلال قوته "الجو فضاء"، حيث يأتي تأسيس وتوسيع مراكز

Youth Supporters of MEK: Responsibility to Attend Iranian Opposition Convention

On July 1st thousands of Iranians will gather in Paris to support the movement to obtain freedom and democracy for their homeland. The convention is organized each year by the Iranian opposition movement (PMOI/MEK). Iranian youth especially look forward to this event as it’s a time to come together and support human rights.

Iranian youth

Too often we hear about the arrests, ill-treatment, and executions of Iran’s youth population.

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

Former Italian Foreign Minister

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.

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 like Hamas and Islamic Jihad which Tehran directly controls.

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.

This time the West ought to back Iranians who seek regime change

As the international community watched to see who would be pulled out of the ballot box in Iran’s Presidential election last month, many Iranians refused to participate in the process, seeing no real prospect for change in their country and not wanting to encourage the perception of legitimacy for the existing government.

Despite state media propaganda of a high turnout (which the regime has claimed at each of its sham polls), this time the online social sphere was full of images of empty voting stations and posters on walls calling for a boycott. The organized boycott was led by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK), the principle opposition group to the Ayatollahs’ regime.

The country’s leading opposition group has continued to attract support throughout the past three decades, even after regime authorities attempted to destroy the group in the midst of a massacre of political prisoners, which killed 30,000 in the summer of 1988. It has also continued to accumulate supporters and organize activist demonstrations in the four years since Rouhani took office on promises of greater civil rights and less restrictions on cultural activities and free expression.

The undiminished appeal of the PMOI is indicative of how little has changed in the wake of Rouhani’s election. As a matter of fact, some conditions inside the country have only grown worse, with the Rouhani administration overseeing approximately 3,000 executions and an enhanced crackdown on activists, journalists, dual nationals, and many other sectors. The administration’s true feelings about human rights issues were made clear the moment Rouhani chose Mostafa Pourmohammadi as his Justice Minister: a man who had served as one of the four judges on the “death commission” that determined whom to hang in 1988.

Rouhani’s contender was Ebrahim Raisi, another member of this panel. Thus the choice for Iranians was between a faction that directly participated in notorious political killings and a faction that merely stood idly by, as well as justifying the killings after the fact. This barely significant difference was reflected in the slogans disseminated by the PMOI in the run-up to the election. Banners and flyers which sprung up throughout the country dismissed Raisi as a “murderer” and Rouhani as an “imposter.” Some of these accompany pictures of PMOI leader Maryam Rajavi, and the messages went on to explicitly advocate regime change instead of acceptance of the extremely limited alternatives that are imposed upon the people.

Every candidate to high office is vetted by Iran’s unelected Guardian Council, in order to guarantee that they pose no challenge to the will of the supreme leader or the country’s hardline Islamist identity. With this in mind, Western policymakers should have been very well aware of the fact that Rouhani’s election in 2013 would not have a meaningful impact on the future of relations with the Islamic Republic, or on the conduct of the Iranian government toward its own people. Nevertheless, the Obama White House eagerly embraced Rouhani as a potential moderating force, as did his counterparts in a number of European nations. And they continued justifying their naivety by boasting of the nuclear agreement that was concluded with his government in July 2015.

But the consequence has been a blind eye to human rights abuses, which are ingrained in the very fabric of tightly controlled theocratic system, by the international community. The persistence of those abuses should have been foreseen by the US and its allies. Throughout these years there have been many within the policy circles who have foreseen these abuses, especially those who have long expressed their support for the PMOI.

Each year, hundreds of international dignitaries attend the international gathering of the PMOI’s parent organization, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in Paris. The event organized by the Iranian diaspora is attended by tens of thousands of Iranian expatriates and is viewed via illegal satellite television hookups and social media by millions of people within Iran. Policymakers who have witnessed this event are fully aware that the will of the Iranian public is not behind the regime, regardless of who holds the office of the presidency.

The legacy of the 1988 massacre and the regime’s ongoing justification of this heinous crime, explains why Iranians see no hope for change during Rouhani’s second term. And the United States should be looking back on the aggressive Iranian rhetoric and force-projection in the Middle East and recognizing it as a reason to support the domestic desire for regime change in Tehran.

The extent of the electoral boycott illustrates the political will which exists throughout the country, eight years after the 2009 uprisings were brutally cracked down. The collapse of that movement was made possible by lack of international support for the people yet wholehearted support for Rouhani, which was itself apparently based on the misplaced belief that the Iranian regime would respond to the discord by changing from within. Now that that assumption has once again been proven false, it is in the interests of the US and all freedom-loving peoples throughout the world to reject the Iranian parody of democracy and to finally listen to the voices of the Iranian people.

Those voices have been consistently neglected, especially during sham presidential elections in which a victor has been declared without acknowledging the people whose absence from the polls constituted a vote for regime change. The activity of the PMOI has been even more pronounced this year than in the lead-up to other elections, and the continuation of the same patterns of neglect would be particularly inexcusable. The strength of the country’s alternative voice will be made clear when there is a full accounting of voter participation. And thereafter, the actual substance of that voice can be heard in the NCRI’s next Paris gathering, which will be held on July 1^st, where over 100,000 will voice their support for a ‘Free Iran’.

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