Iran Focus
London, 7 Mar – Iran has been creating proxy militias all over the middle east in order to facilitate its expansionist dreams for decades now but how have they been able to move so many troops with so little attention for so long?
Shahriar Kia, a political analyst and member of Iranian opposition group, People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), answered these questions on The Hill.
Money
While the Iranian economy may be in disarray, leaving the ordinary Iranians live in poverty, they always have enough money for war. Iran is, after all, one of the richest countries in terms of natural resources like crude oil and natural gas.
A large portion of the Regime budget is allotted to the military, whether they are interfering in a civil war of soverign states (i.e. Syria), attaining nuclear weapons (despite the treaty), or cracking down on free speech in their own country.
Kia wrote: “Rallies and demonstrations are also on the rise in Iran as more and more people are protesting very poor living conditions rendered through the disastrous policies implemented by the mullahs’ regime.”
This included a week-long rally against Iran’s desertification campaign and thousands protesting their late wage payments and a lack of employment.
He continued: “As the Iranian people suffer, the money needed to provide for their needs is used by the mullahs’ regime to pursue their own domestic and foreign agendas. As a voice focusing on unveiling such efforts, the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) relies on a vast social base inside the country to gather such intelligence to unveil some of the regime’s most sensitive projects.”
The Iranian Opposition
The Iranian Opposition group, the MEK, has been at the forefront of exposing the Regime’s true nature, including the nuclear programme in 2002, the role of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in massacring Aleppo residents in December 2016 and most recently, they revealed the 14 terror training camps in Iran.
Kia wrote: “Iran trains Iraqi Shiite militias in bases across Iraq, dispatching such individuals to pursue Iran’s objectives in Iraq. Iran also used this asset to target Iranian opposition members formerly in Iraq in 8 different attacks that targeted their camps, Ashraf and Liberty, leaving over 175 MEK members killed and more than 1,000 injured. These attacks were mainly carried out by Iraqi militias under IRGC orders.”
Kia argued that the US should put the IRGC on the list of foreign terrorist organisations.
He wrote: “Tehran has to understand that such undertakings will no longer be tolerated and continuing with such actions and further missile tests will bear a heavy price tag. This approach will place America as a shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people’s plight to establish freedom and democracy.”
