Threat to Peace and Stability : Islamic Republic of Iran

"The fake Zionist regime is the mother of all calamities and the root-cause of problems in the region and, therefore, the few regional countries that move toward normalizing ties with this fabricated regime are acting against the security and interests of the region and the Muslim ummah."

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian 

 

"Without swift progress, in light of Iran’s fast-forwarding of its nuclear program, the JCPOA will soon become an empty shell."

"There has been some technical progress in the last 24 hours, but this only takes us back nearer to where the talks stood in June."

E3 Diplomats

 

"We have had many hours of engagement, and all delegations have pressed Iran to be reasonable [over stalemated talks]."

"As of this moment, we still have not been able to get down to real negotiations. We are losing precious time dealing with new Iranian positions inconsistent with the JCPOA that go beyond [a] clearly visible [outline tentatively agreed during the previous round of talks in June]." 

"But time is running out. Without swift progress, in light of Iran’s fast-forwarding of its nuclear program, the JCPOA will very soon become an empty shell."

Senior European Diplomats

The delegations are expected to head back to the Austrian capital in about a week with an aim to move forward on restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [EU Delegation in Vienna/EEAS/Handout via Reuters

 

This is the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran as he congratulates Ismail Haniyeh on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the "resistance movement" known as Hamas. Iran and Hamas would not under other circumstances have anything approaching friendly relations; their ancient sectarian enmities; Shi'ia Islam under Iran and Sunni Islam representing Hamas's Islamism would have kept them at vitriolic loggerheads. Both, however, have a solid link to a common denominator: the state of Israel.

The United Nations whose formation and constitution were based on upholding human rights, peaceful negotiation, and equality between nations provided a platform for former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to expound on Iran's position of vitriolic opposition to the existence of the state of Israel in the Middle East. Iran shares no borders with Israel, has no business to conduct with Israel, but takes the implacable position that no land once consecrated to Islam may be occupied by any other religion.

This, despite Israel's ancestral origins in the Middle East, well documented and historically evidenced, long predating Islam. The Iranian brand of Shia Islam nurtured by Ayatollah Khomeini in his Iranian Revolution -- that brought fundamentalist Islam to Iran and ousted the Pahlevi dynasty that had been modernizing Iran, and had good relations with the Arab Sunni nations and with Israel -- has since alienated most of the Arab nations while focusing on Israel as a future target for total elimination.

During Lebanon's civil war period when its shared governance with its major populations of Sunni, Shia, Druze and Christian leaders fell into violent disarray, Iran's Republican Guard Corps al-Quds division covertly entered Lebanon -- along with Syria's military and government agents at a time when Israel had invaded to stop cross-border attacks from Palestinians living on the border, and France and the U.S. were installed on a UN peacekeeping mission -- and Hezbollah was born.

The "Party of God" was nurtured, trained and armed by the Islamist al-Quds of the Republican Guard as a functional ally of Iran, a proxy militia that Iran would control. Known for its links with and support for terrorist groups, and for the part it plays in dispatching them to international destinations to mount atrocities against Jewish institutions, Iran is fixated not only on destroying Israel, but Jewish lives anywhere they exist.

This is the theocratic government that the UN, the EU and the US have been busy negotiating with in an effort to slow down the Republic's nuclear program. Sanctions imposed on Iran linked to its illicit uranium enrichment program, failed to stop Iran's burgeoning ballistic missiles program as it became more technologically advanced and capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

In efforts to restore the original 2015 nuclear agreement during which time Iran steadily, surreptitiously continued its uranium enrichment, its threats against its neighbours, its dispatch of Shia militias into Syria to aid in Bashar al-Assad's vengeance attacks on Syria's majority Sunni population, the Western negotiators have re-discovered Iran's penchant for duplicity. Even more so, Iranian negotiators are now less ostensibly willing to negotiate in good faith.

The very concept of good faith is risible in the face of a regime that practices taqqiya -- offputting an adversary for the greater goal of eventually gaining advantage; in this case denying any intention of posing a threat to the region much less gaining the goal of nuclear weaponry, arguing it would be for peaceful, civil purposes only, the while at every level of authority threatening the existence of Israel; its presence an intolerable affront to Islam.

Months ago the Iranians let it be known that they built an underground missile complex they called a "missile city". Imaging company Planet Labs Inc. took satellite images showing launch preparations at Iran's Imam Khomeini Spaceport; a clear defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, whereby Iran is not to take action of any kind involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

But this kind of arsenal is critical to Iran's plans to achieve Middle East dominance and in the process destabilizing the region. Non-Arab Iran's Shi'ism while a dominant strain of Islam is in the minority; most Arab countries are Sunni-dominant. Iran's plans to control the Middle East stem from its ancient preeminence in the region, along with its political-weight sectarian authoritarianism.

Iran's Shadow War

"All available evidence clearly points to Iran [being behind a drone attack on July 29 against an Israel-linked tanker that killed a former British soldier and Romanian national]."

"This was a deliberate and targeted attack, and a clear violation of international law … There is no justification for this attack."

"Vessels must be allowed to navigate freely in accordance with international law. [We will] do our utmost to protect all shipping, upon which the global economy depends. Iran’s behaviour, alongside its support to proxy forces and non-state armed actors, threatens international peace and security."

G7 Foreign Ministers

 

"The UK knows that Iran was responsible for this attack. We know it was deliberate and targeted. [The evidence is] clear cut."

"The door for diplomacy and dialogue remains open. But if Iran chooses not to take that route, then we would seek to hold Iran to account and apply a cost to that."

British Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward

 

"[The accusations are] baseless."

"For those who are familiar with the history of the region, the design of such conspiracies at different junctures by the Israeli regime is nothing new."

"[Iran would not hesitate in defending its national interests and would respond to any] possible adventurism." 

"[Allegations that Iran was responsible] were contradictory, false and provocative."

Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman, Iranian Foreign Ministry

 

"[The attack may have been launched from the Iranian coast. The distance to the locations of the attacks] was within the range of documented Iranian one-way attack [drones]."

"Some of the material was transferred to US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain and subsequently to a US national laboratory for further testing and verification."

Central Command, which oversees US forces in the region

The Mercer Street was attacked off the coast of Oman, and two on board were killed   Johan Victor via Reuters

 

Intelligence agencies from the United Kingdom, Canada, Israel and the United States, all marked the Islamic State of Iran as the perpetrator of yet another attack on a vessel sailing in the norther Indian Ocean on July 30 off the coast of Oman. Two crew members of the ship named the Mercer Street managed by Zodiac Maritime based in the United Kingdom, owned by an Israeli shipping owner died in the attack. The Romanian captain of the ship and a British security guard lost their lives in the event. Those on board the ship reported having been targeted by two drones hours before the explosive drone hit the ship.

The attack appears to be yet another 'adventure' undertaken by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps which, with their armed speed boats, have taken to surrounding, harassing and attacking vessels in international waters claiming them to be in waters of Iranian jurisdiction. Following this most recent deadly attack, within days other foreign oil tankers reported they were both physically hijacked and digitally interfered with while sailing off the Gulf of Oman, in violation of international law.

This too is a hallmark operation of the Republic which has for years claimed ownership  of the Strait of Hormus, threatening to close it off to international shipping and navigation should an armed conflict break out. The waters off the United Arab Emirates have been roiled for the past two years by a series of explosions and hijackings. For which the U.S.Navy has blamed Iran, in limpet mine attacks damaging oil tankers. The Israel-owned ships Helios Ray and Hyperion Ray were similarly attacked.

Iran claims plausible deniability. The theocratic dictatorship that is known to be the major supporter of Islamist terrorism through its proxies Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemeni Houthis, as well as Shi'ite militias, and also Hamas, supplying them with weaponry and deploying their militias when it suits their purpose of sowing terror in specific targets, is no innocent bystander as it claims to be. Its deliberate, planned acts of violence and maritime sabotage and criminal attacks reflect its agenda to throw opponents into disarray and advance Iran's plans to lead a Shi'ite conquest in a majority Sunni Arab Middle East.

Its signing of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union was nothing but a smokescreen for its urgent search for enriched uranium to bring its nuclear program closer to completion. Despite signing the JCPOA, it continued enriching uranium covertly while advancing the updated technology of its medium-range ballistic missiles, designed to carry a nuclear warhead. And carrying on a clandestine connection with North Korea.

The region is under threat of constant violent provocation by Iran, through missions delivered by its proxy terrorist groups and its greatest asset, its state terrorist group, the IRGC. While the United States reignited a new series of negotiations to renew the JCPOA, Iran has been emboldened to threaten dire consequences for those interfering in its affairs. Affairs that include destabilizing the Middle East, and threatening to demolish Israel, for which a nuclear warhead would be an invaluable tool, and setting the entire region on edge, venturing outward from the Middle East to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Brazil, Cuba.

As two oil-producing countries under U.S. sanctions, Iran and Venezuela have been working in recent years to strengthen geopolitical ties to relieve U.S. pressure and find a solution to improve their economies.