After decades of political setbacks, Iran’s former Revolutionary Guards commander has returned to the center of power. Is he an incidental beneficiary of war, or have observers underestimated him all along?
Gulf states and their partners are increasingly looking beyond their most immediate interests of containing the war with Iran. While recent talks between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran have kept de-escalation on the agenda, a broader regional security framework and non-aggression pact has also emerged, envisioning a longer-lasting solution to regional conflicts. The talks have yet to produce a settlement, but they reflect a growing recognition that Gulf security cannot depend entirely on Washington. Iran will still be there, and its neighbors will have to find ways of living with it.
Recent elections for the Israeli Knesset and American Congress may make less of a difference in the Middle East than some people think. Elections are significant indicators of national political trends, but do not always translate into changes in national security strategies. That is likely the case now in both nations.
The deputy commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has warned Europe that if it acts against Tehran’s interests, the I.R.G.C. will increase the range of the country’s missiles beyond the current limit of 2,000 kilometers. “If we have kept the range of our missiles up to 2,000 kilometers and have not increased it, it is not because of technological limitations.
The head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) has admitted that Iran is providing assistance to the Houthi “resistance movement” fighting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. “Our assistance to the resistance front has been provided at the request of their people and governments, and Yemen is one of those examples. In Yemen, the power today lies in the hands of Ansarullah and Iran’s assistance is at the level of advisory and spiritual support, which Yemen needs more,” Major General Ali Jafari said at a press conference in Tehran on Thursday.
The new head of Iran’s Navy has said that the country is planning on sending warships to America’s backyard, the Iranian media reported.
In a phone call on Tuesday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani urged his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron not to support Washington’s policies vis-à-vis Tehran, particularly regarding Iran’s missile program and regional policies and actions.
With ISIS militarily defeated in Syria and Iraq, the Fatemiyoun Division, an all-Afghan Afghan Shiite militia group fighting in Syria, says its fighters will join the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian-sponsored Iraqi militia groups to fight Israel next.
Seventy five Nobel laureates have called on the Iranian government to release Ahmadreza Jalali, a Sweden-based scholar jailed in Iran on allegations of spying for Israel, the BBC Persian reported.
Hossein Sheikholeslam, a senior advisor to Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, credited Iran’s elite Quds Force for “defeating” the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and “foiling the American plots and calculations” in the region. In an interview with Tasnim News Agency, the former Iranian ambassador to Syria, commended Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani for having created a multinational force of Shiite groups from South Asia to the Levant region in order to secure Iran’s objectives in the region.
This piece was co-authored by Bilal Saab and Kenneth M. Pollack, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Read the full op-ed on the Wall Street Journal.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Paul Salem, Alex Vatanka, Randa Slim, Marvin G. Weinbaum, and Eran Etzion provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the Arab League meeting in Cairo to moderate the Saudi-Iran escalation, Iran’s view of the Sochi Summit as a turning point, Putin’s effort to reach an agreement on Syria before presidential elections, Afghanistan’s response to the increase of US troops on their ground, and the political upheaval in Israel as Netanyahu’s corruption case continues.
In a meeting today in Tehran with the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamo, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif raised concern about the growing presence of ISIS fighters in Afghanistan, the Iranian media reported. Zarif emphasized that the Islamic Republic is ready to expand its cooperation with the U.N. and the Afghan government to counter the ISIS threat in Afghanistan and the broader region.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks on Friday about Iran’s destabilizing role in the Middle East and controversial missile program provoked angry reactions in Tehran.
The U.S. Treasury Department today sanctioned a network of individuals and entities involved in counterfeiting Yemeni bank notes for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and assisting I.R.G.C.’s destabilizing activities. The network is said to have produced hundreds of millions of dollars in fake Yemeni cash, using “deceptive measures” to circumvent European export restrictions to buy advanced equipment needed to print the money for the I.R.G.C.’s elite Quds Force.
There was a time when Lebanon was a Syrian protectorate occupied by the Syrian Army. The Syrian war over the past six years, however, has somewhat reversed the roles – transforming Lebanese Hezbollah into a leading military force in Syria. Hezbollah has not only deployed thousands of its forces to fight in Syria, but it has also begun recruiting Syrian nationals.
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