{"id":236737,"date":"2021-03-24T08:41:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T13:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=236737"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:02:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:02:28","slug":"irans-missile-threats-terrorism-human-rights-abuses-still-needlessly-overshadowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/blog\/op-ed\/irans-missile-threats-terrorism-human-rights-abuses-still-needlessly-overshadowed\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Missile Threats, Terrorism, Human Rights Abuses Still Needlessly Overshadowed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"irans-missile-threats-terrorism-human-rights-abuses-still-needlessly-overshadowed\"<\/p>\n

By: Alejo Vidal Quadras<\/strong><\/p>\n

Various NATO foreign ministers began holding meetings in Brussels on Tuesday. There is little doubt that some of their discussions will focus on Iran, but it remains to be seen whether the gathering will yield any sort of policy consensus on matters other than the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.<\/p>\n

As important as it is to prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon, debates over the JCPOA have had the unfortunate effect of blinding many Western policymakers to the need for sustained pressure on that regime in other areas. This has seemingly emboldened Tehran in many of its malign activities, including some that are closely related to the nuclear issue.<\/p>\n

One of the most frequently repeated criticisms of the JCPOA is that it failed to address the ballistic missile program run by the country\u2019s hardline paramilitary, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps<\/a>. In fact, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which governs the nuclear deal, actively weakened the language of prior resolutions that referenced those weapons.<\/p>\n

Prior to 2015, the regime had been categorically banned from working on potential delivery<\/a> systems for a nuclear weapon, but once the JCPOA was implemented, the regime was merely \u201ccalled upon\u201d to avoid work on weapons that were designed with that specific purpose in mind. Since then, the IRGC has carried out more than a dozen ballistic missile tests, involving at least eight systems that are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the Iranian regime actually deployed ballistic missiles on at least four occasions in Syria and Iraq, most recently in an operation that targeted US forces in an effort to retaliate for the January 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani<\/a>, the head of the IRGC\u2019s extraterritorial branch known as Quds Force<\/a>. Even in the wake of that unprecedented provocation, the European response to Iran\u2019s missile activity has been muted, presumably because it is beyond the scope of a nuclear deal that European leaders are singularly intent on saving.<\/p>\n

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IRGC Quds force, Iran regime clandestine military empire<\/div><\/div>
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