The Iranian regime’s missile program is becoming a major problem and a threat in the Middle East region. On March 13, the regime attacked a base in Iraq’s Kurdistan region with dozens of missiles, then justified it by claiming that the base was a “strategic center of conspiracy and wickedness” that belonged to Israel.
Despite the regime characterizing this act as defensive, that attack was a clear violation of the principles of international relations and the sovereignty of its neighboring country. It should be noted that such actions committed by the regime have been repeated many times over the past years and will no doubt happen again while they are still being empowered by the appeasement of Western countries and their feckless approach to the regime’s acts of aggression.
The West’s weak posture during the Vienna talks over the regime’s nuclear program explains the regime’s increasing aggression toward its neighboring countries.
Many observers viewed the missile barrage as an attempt by the regime to further divide Iraq’s political factions, which Tehran believes would empower its proxy groups who were routed during the parliamentary elections in 2021. The swift condemnation of the attack by the Iraqi Prime Minister and all other Iraqi political groups, except for the regime’s proxies, undermined the mullahs’ plan.
A cursory review of the Iranian state media and remarks by its officials makes it palpably clear that the unprovoked and illegal missile attack was meant to boost the morale of the regime’s demoralized forces, especially in view of setbacks it has received in the region, including the death of two senior Quds Force commanders in Syria.
Irrespective of the regime’s motives in launching this attack, Tehran’s missile and a drone program pose an increasing threat to regional and global peace and stability.
Ironically, such an aggressive posture is necessary for the regime to offset the irremediable crises it is facing at home, including a collapsing economy, aggravating factional infighting, and an increasingly restive population.
Under the circumstances, offering any concessions to the regime under the pretext of trying to keep the mullahs’ nuclear program in check is misguided and counterproductive because it would amount to throwing the regime a lifeline precisely at a time when it is at its most precarious and vulnerable state in the past 43 years.
