Iran missile progress, US new bête noire: Analyst

Amid progress in the ongoing talks on Iran’s nuclear energy program, the United States is raising unreasonable demands about Iran’s missile achievements.

A senior US intelligence official has said that Iran will acquire inter-continental ballistic missiles by 2015.

“I think when the Chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey] talked about our assessment being in the 2015 timeframe, given the development that we’ve seen, that’s accurate,” Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Michael Flynn recently told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Based on these remarks, the US officials have said that Iran must dismantle its missile program. In reaction, Iranian officials have said that the talks between Iran and six world powers are exclusively focused on the nuclear issue and that Iran’s defense capabilities are non-negotiable.

The first question striking the mind is to know why the US officials are bringing up a new issue in the midst of the nuclear talks while they are well aware that Iran will never accept to negotiate about its missile program. This issue could be analyzed from two points of view.

The first standpoint is based on the US-Israeli view of Iran’s nuclear and military activities: Iran has made significant progress in three different but complementary sectors and therefore the US and its allies should keep Iran from completing a triangle. Progress in these three fields would maximize the Islamic Republic’s deterrence power against threats. Here are the three sides of the triangle:

1. Nuclear program: Iran can enrich uranium to generate nuclear energy. Iran enriches uranium up to 20-percent purity with its own 19,000 centrifuges. Iran’s achievements in this field are irreversible. Iran can only be convinced to voluntarily curb the level of its enrichment as it agreed to not enrich uranium above five percent purity.

2. Ballistic missile launch: The US military and strategic experts say Iran is capable of launching 5,000-kilometer-range missiles whose warheads weigh one ton. In their view, Iran, which is located 10,000 kilometers from the east of the United States, is close to developing missiles which could hit the US.

3. Navigation and aviation: By intercepting a US drone, Iran showed to the US officials that it has made significant achievements in the aviation sector. Therefore, US strategists say, Iran can mount nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles to strike any target.

For US strategists, any country making achievements in these three sectors is a potential nuclear power upon which Washington could no longer impose its demands. Therefore, they say, Iran should not be allowed to upgrade the range of its missiles to above 10,000 kilometers. They say Iran’s nuclear issue and missile development should be discussed together throughout Iran’s talks with world powers – the US, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany.

The second standpoint stipulates that negotiations with Iran should not be limited to the nuclear issue and that Iran’s military achievements, gained particularly in the wake of the Iraqi imposed war (1980-1988), must be discussed. This standpoint is setting the stage for discussions about Iran’s ballistic missiles in the future round of talks.

The first standpoint is far from reality and is mainly promoted by anti-Iranian circles in the US and Israel. These circles claim that Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. Advocates of this view say holding talks with Iran will let Tehran buy enough time to reach its nuclear objectives.

But the fact is that Iran’s nuclear activities are fully under supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and reports by the UN nuclear monitoring body give a clean bill of health to the Islamic Republic. Furthermore, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said in a fatwa that developing a nuclear bomb is religiously forbidden.

Regarding the second standpoint, it is important to know that Iran has never hidden its military and missile achievements. Iran says it is entitled to boost its military strength and the US cannot ask Iran to dismantle its missile program. The world remembers well that the US, France, Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the former Soviet Union supplied Iraq with weapons during its invasion of Iran in the 1980s. Iran was left alone and it had to manufacture its own weaponry. Naturally, such a country must be equipped with the most advanced and most effective defense gear in order to spare any infringement upon its territorial integrity. Such a level of preparedness is a totally domestic issue and is the Iranian people’s most basic expectation from the Islamic Republic.

The Americans must have raised the issue of Iran’s ballistic missiles to appease extremist Americans and Zionists – seriously opposing Iran’s nuclear talks – in the short-term, and also to define the agenda for future talks between Iran and world powers.

Either way, Iran is unlikely to agree to negotiate with the world powers on its sovereign defensive right. Iran has also set redlines like suspension of nuclear research activities, closure of Arak heavy-water plant and limiting the number of centrifuges to 10,000.

One must wait and see what other issues the Americans are willing to raise throughout Iran’s nuclear talks with the world powers.