the other iranian weapons smuggling in the middle east

Upload: jerusalem-center-for-public-affairs

Post on 03-Jun-2018

215 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

  • 8/12/2019 The Other Iranian Weapons Smuggling in the Middle East

    1/1

    The Other Iranian Weapons Smuggling

    in the Middle East

    Dore Gold

    Israels seizure of the Iranian weapons ship Klos-Cnear the Eritrean-Sudanese border in the Red Sea, with

    its cargo of advanced rockets and mortar shells, is only one example of how the Iranian regime uses the

    supply of arms in order to intervene in a variety of local wars in the Middle East. In May 2008, a former

    chief of staff of Bahrain gave an interview to the pan-Arab daily al-Hayatwhich compared Iran to an

    octopus whose tentacles were rummaging around in Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Gaza and Bahrain.

    One indication of this destabilizing Iranian role is its supply of arms to a variety of regional insurgencies. In

    January 2013, the Yemeni armed forces, with the assistance of the U.S. Navy, stopped an Iranian arms ship

    carrying sophisticated Chinese surface-to-air missiles, C-4 explosives, and bomb-making equipment

    intended to help the Zayidi Shiite rebellion against the central government in Yemen. These same missileshad been found in 2008 to be used by Shiite militants in Iraq, and presumably were also supplied by Iran.

    In February 2013, UN monitors reported Iranian and Yemeni links to arms supplies, including IEDs

    (improvised explosive devices), bound for the al-Shabaab in Somalia. In December 2013, the Bahraini

    Navy interdicted another Iranian arms ship carrying weapons and ammunition for the anti-government

    Shiite opposition in Bahrain.

    Iranian cargo aircraft have been supplying Hizbullah for years through Damascus International Airport.

    They continue to re-supply Hizbullah, especially now, given its direct support for the embattled regime of

    Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The Iranians have also been active in maintaining land routes of supply to Syria

    via Turkey, where arms shipments have been stopped on a number of occasions, and to the Taliban in

    Afghanistan, which is adjacent to Irans eastern border.

    The present negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 over Irans nuclear program have not even begun to

    address this Iranian activism across the Middle East, which continues unabated even under the presidency

    of Hassan Rouhani. It would seem to be completely unrealistic to reach any nuclear understandings with

    Tehran while branches of the Iranian armed forces, like the Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guards, are

    undermining the internal stability of states across the region. Israels interception of the Klos Chas put this

    dilemma front and center for the Western powers to consider.

    About Dore Gold

    Ambassador Dore Gold is the President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He is the author of the

    best-selling books: The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City

    (Regnery, 2007), and The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West(Regnery, 2009).- See more at: http://jcpa.org/iranian-weapons-smuggling-middle-east/#sthash.b4Te4uPQ.dpuf