Published in the
Orange County Register on February 26, 2014. To access the original article,
click here.
As
Iran receives limited sanctions relief in return for a six-month moratorium on
the enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, pundits are alive with speculation
that this is the precursor to restoring relations with the Islamic Republic.
Ali Khamenei remains the “supreme leader” and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani
remains the regime insider who bragged of his prior expansion of the Iranian
nuclear program without incurring international sanctions.
That
means recent history is full of hurdles that need to be overcome.
Despite
the nuclear accord, Iranian activities continue to threaten the United States
and its allies. The U.S. Institute of Peace reports Iran has developed the
Sejil-2 ballistic missile that can deliver a payload 1,500 miles and a top
Iranian military commander bragged that Iran has developed drones with a range
of 1,250 miles. These activities threaten U.S. allies such as Azerbaijan,
Israel and Saudi Arabia. A 2012 Pentagon report estimated that Iranian missiles
could reach U.S. shores by 2015.
Iranian-supplied
weapons have already killed Americans, if WikiLeaks is to be believed. U.S.
officials raised to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan that his country sold rockets
and machine guns to Iran in 2003, which then provided them to Iraqi Shiite
militants to kill American soldiers in 2007. Sargsyan denied any transfer had
occurred. However, a Western diplomat said the U.S. had multiple streams of
intelligence connecting the Armenian arms shipment to Iran with the deaths of
the U.S. soldiers.
Iran
has also used ad hoc terrorist groups to further their interests. In
Washington, D.C., a guard at an Iranian diplomatic mission assassinated an
exile leader in 1980. Years later, in 2011, the FBI and DEA uncovered a plot to
assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. and to bomb the Israeli
embassy.
Azerbaijan,
an ally that has supported the United States in both Iraq and Afghanistan,
uncovered a number of Iranian plots. In 2007, the government convicted 15
people on charges of espionage in favor of Iran. In February 2012, Azerbaijani
authorities arrested a second group who planned to kill two teachers at a
Jewish school in the country's capital, Baku. In March, the security forces
arrested 22 people hired by Iran to attack the U.S. and Israeli embassies, as
well as Western companies. Authorities seized assault rifles, grenades,
ammunition and explosives.
Iran
has supported Armenia in its conflict against predominantly Muslim – but
secular – Azerbaijan as a means of avoiding economic international sanctions.
According to American scholar Michael Rubin, in 2012 Bank Mellat, a sanctioned
Iranian bank, was operating in the Armenian capital of Yerevan and Iranian
businesses dotted the city.
Iran
continues to back the Lebanese terror group, Hezbollah, which threatens
Israel's northern border and supports the bloody Syrian regime of Bashar
al-Assad. Argentinean prosecutors claim that Hezbollah has operated outside of
the Middle East, alleging involvement in the 1992 and 1994 bombings in Buenos
Aires. Israeli authorities report a February 2012 arrest in Thailand of Iranian
citizens who were planning to bomb Israeli citizens. While Rouhani and Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have dropped former president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's anti-Israeli rhetoric, there has been no lessening in Iran's
opposition to the existence of Israel.
One
is encouraged by the efforts to overcome the decades of mistrust. There are a
number of issues that need to be resolved, however, before Iran can be welcomed
back into the comity of nations.
James J. Coyle is the director of
Global Education at Chapman University and is the chair of the Eurasian
committee of the Pacific Council on International Policy.
