Con Coughlin
Gatestone Institute, July 29, 2022
“The concern now is that the commercial ties between the two countries will lead to closer military cooperation.”
Iran’s deepening involvement in supporting the Russian war effort against Ukraine should serve as a wake up call to Western leaders that Iran’s military threat is no longer solely confined to the Middle East.
Ever since the ayatollahs seized control of the country more than 40 years ago, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime’s standard bearers, have mostly confined their military activities to the Middle East region, whether it is waging war against neighbouring countries like Iraq or threatening Israel through its proxies in Lebanon and Syria.
The only occasions when the IRGC has ventured beyond the Middle East has been to carry out terrorist operations, such as the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Argentina that killed 85 people and wounded more than 300, or the recent wave of terrorist attacks it has carried out in Europe.
The Iranian regime’s decision to give its backing to Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine therefore represents an alarming expansion in Iran’s military ambitions beyond the Middle East.
Con Coughlin is the Telegraph‘s Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.