the other iranian weapons smuggling in the middle east
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8/12/2019 The Other Iranian Weapons Smuggling in the Middle East
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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