NEW SANCTIONS ON IRAN, NOW IT'S TIME FOR A NEW US POLICY TOO

By Alireza Jafarzadeh

On the second anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or the Iran nuclear deal, some argue that the agreement succeeded in slowing Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon. However, the restrictions on the Iranian nuclear program are only limited, as is the international inspectors’ access to the country’s illicit facilities.In addition, in areas unrelated to the nuclear agreement,

the Iranian regime’s behavior has only gotten worse over the past two years. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has escalated its nefarious activities in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, has deliberately sought out close encounters with American warships, and has boasted of new Iranian military equipment.

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 The White House’s efforts to enforce a harder line on Iran policy is well justified and the president’s signing into law of H.R. 3364, which included a title, “Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017” is a step in the right direction.

In June, the National Council of Resistance of Iran revealed details of the escalation of the Iranian missile program, proving the nuclear threat to be real. The opposition coalition identified more than 40 sites for missile development, manufacturing, and testing, all of which were under the control of the IRGC. What’s more, at least one of those sites was known to be collaborating with the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, known by its Farsi acronym SPND, the institution tasked with weaponization activities related to the Iranian nuclear weapons program. SPND activities have continued since the JDPOA.

Such revelations clarified what should already be common knowledge: Iran’s nuclear weapons activities have continued. Even worse, myopic focus on the nuclear issues has distracted attention from the Iranian regime’s terrorism sponsorship, regional intervention, and human rights abuses.

If the IRGC continues to acquire more wealth through its large-scale control of the de-sanctioned Iranian economy, combined with continued lack of access to the nuclear sites of SPND, Iran will undoubtedly deliver a nuclear weapon.

To its credit, the US. has taken steps toward addressing the underlying problem of the IRGC’s expanding control over Iranian affairs. Soon after taking office, Mr. Trump urged the administration to review designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization. With the new Iran sanctions bill now signed into law, the administration should expand all anti-terror sanctions to the whole of the IRGC, including its affiliate entities and associated financial and economic arms.

This is a meaningful start to a new Iran policy that is comprehensive in its aims and in its enforcement. Toward that end, the US should work with the UN and EU to evict the IRCG from the combat zones in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. This will help protect the West and its allies, as well as empower the Iranian people, who are seeking regime change and are more than capable of bringing it about on their own.

Without serious sacrifice, Western powers must do their part. The Iranian regime must be more isolated and financially handicapped by the United States. It must also be subject to pressure not just over its nuclear program but also over a range of current and past crimes, including illicit missile testing, escalating regional and sectarian conflicts in the Middle East, and the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. The United States should subject all major human rights violators of the Iranian regime, including dozens involved in the horrific 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. Many of the perpetrators of this crime currently hold key positions in the Iranian regime.

These pressures will make a profound difference in the future of Iran, if coupled with reaching out to the people of Iran and their organized opposition. They will succeed in diminishing the power and influence of the IRGC; bolster the Iranian people and the prospect of the emergence of a truly democratic Iranian government. 

Alireza Jafarzadeh, the deputy director of the Washington office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, is credited with exposing Iranian nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak in 2002, triggering International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. He is the author of "The Iran Threat" (Palgrave MacMillan: 2008). His email is Jafarzadeh@ncrius.org , and is on twitter @A_Jafarzadeh.

IRAN'S MISSILE PROGRAM STEPPED UP AFTER NUCLEAR DEAL

By Shahriar Kia

 American Thinker, June 22, 2017 - 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 ) 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 that Khamenei has specifically tasked the IRGC Aerospace Force with carrying out this initiative.

The locations of 42 sites were verified by the Iranian opposition, all being affiliated with 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.

    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, and Khorramabad in western Iran, as well as near the city of Karaj, west of Tehran.  Iran has recognized only 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 Rouhaniunderscored 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 have 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 [.]... [T]his 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 its meddling across the region.  Targeting ISIS and claiming that these attacks were in response to the June 7 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 among the rank and file, especially the IRGC.  These elements are currently terrified, as the U.S. has become active in Syria and intensified its sanctions against Tehran, and America's top diplomat is emphasizing a policy of supporting regime change during the 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 10.

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

It is high time that 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