Iran in Crisis?: Nuclear Ambitions
On December 28 2017 protests broke out in Mashhad Iran’s second largest city over economic, hardships, corruption, and rising food and fuel prices. The initial protests were reportedly sparked by increases of up to 40 percent in staples, the population in Iran is approximately 80 million people, and about 3.2 million Iranians are jobless.
As we know this is the second protests in Iran , the protests mark the most intense domestic challenge to the Iranian government since the 12 June 2009, following the announcement that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won nearly 63% of the vote despite several reported irregularities. However, all three opposition candidates claimed the votes were manipulated and the election was rigged, with Rezaee and Mousavi lodging official complaints. Mousavi announced he “won’t surrender to this manipulation”, before lodging an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered an investigation into the claims of electoral fraud and irregularities, as requested by Green Movement leaders.
Iran’s post-election political unrest claimed its first confirmed they shots were fired at supporters of the defeated presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, who had defied an official ban on a mass rally in central Tehran. according to the results more than 500,000 people were involved in the protest against the election “theft”. the second day on 28 December remonstrations spread to more cities in the northeastern cities of Neyshabour Rasht, Qom, Isfahan, Zahedan and Kermanshah. Mashhad Governor Mohammad Norouzian told Iranian media the protest was organized via social media by “counter-revolutionary elements.” Demonstrators also reportedly chanted “Death to Rouhani” and “Death to the Dictator.” Police used water cannons to disperse the crowds and 52 people were arrested, according to BBC News.
Furthermore, The protestors’ slogans criticized the regime’s foreign policy, including its financial support for allied movements outside Iran. Around 300 people gathered at Freedom Square in the mainly Kurdish city of Kermanshah and chanted “Care for us and leave Palestine.” They also shouted “Political prisoners should be freed,” “Death or freedom” and “Leave Syria, think about us!” then the demonstrations turned violent in the western town of Dorud where two protestors were reportedly killed. Protestors hit government buildings and students at Tehran University and hurled rocks at police, chanting “Death to the dictator.” Iranian authorities blamed counter-revolutionaries and agents of foreign powers for the anti-government demonstrations. More than 200 people were arrested in Tehran and 80 in Arak. Brigadier General Esmail Kowsari said to the Iranian media “If people came into the streets over high prices, they should not have chanted those slogans and burned public property and cars.” and also “We are a free nation, and based on the Constitution and citizenship rights, people are completely free to express their criticism and even their protest,” Rouhani said, “But the procedure of expressing criticism and protest should be in such a way that would lead to the betterment of public life and country’s situation. Then the second day on 1 January just up to 10 people killed overnight during anti-government protests around Iran, and the government shootings were responsible for eight deaths. In the central city of Najafabad, a demonstrator opened fire on police, killing one officer and injuring three others. Demonstrations turned violent elsewhere, as police used tear gas to disperse protests , more than 450 people had been arrested by the government. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei
charged enemies of Iran stirred unrest in the Islamic Republic., enemies of Iran have allied and used the various means they possess, including money, weapons, politics and intelligence services.
On 3 January Protests continued across the country, including in Tehran and Ahvaz. But they had generally diminished. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces were deployed to Hamadan, Isfahan and Lorestan provinces to deal with the anti-government demonstrations. IRGC commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari claimed that a seditious plot had been foiled. “Our security system’s readiness and people’s vigilance made the enemy taste yet another defeat.” The largest gatherings “were a maximum of 1,500 people in each place, and the number of troublemakers did not exceed 15,000 people nationwide,” Jafari added. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Iranians participated in state-sponsored rallies in several cities, including Kermanshah, Ilam, Ahvaz, Gorgan and Qom. Marchers chanted, “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader,” and “We will not leave our leader alone.”
Who wants to destroy Iran?
United States and Israel worked in various forms of strategic partnership, with an implied acceptance of American hegemony over the region in the middle east .The Cold War started in the Islamic Republic’s rise has occurred during a still ongoing period of tectonic shifts in the region’s strategic environment.
These shifts include the effective collapse of the traditional ArabIsraeli peace process, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the US invasion occupation Iraq , the rise of Hezbollah and Hamas and the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq alHariri, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and subsequent Israeli military campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza. Moreover, the revolution in the middle east started from Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen , Syria and Libya structural changes in global energy markets and a tremendous transfer of wealth to major Middle Eastern energy producers. All of these shifts are playing out against what is increasingly perceived, in the Middle East and elsewhere, as a decline in America’s relative power and influence. After President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s initial election in 2005, the Islamic Republic was able to take advantage of these developments to effect a significant boost in its own regional standing. But notwithstanding these strategic gains, Iran continues to face serious national security and foreign policy challenges, both regionally and internationally, because Iran want to control middle east .
Iran Nuclear Ambitions
There are several key issues. They include energy security (oil) which has been a main focus for the U.S. in the Middle East. The U.S. has also been the policeman looking after Middle East oil production. One of the most important factors has been that the U.S. is looking after the safety and security of Israel from neighboring countries. in 2015 the Iran nuclear deal framework was a preliminary framework agreement reached between the Islamic Republic of Iran and a group of world powers: (the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China—plus Germany) and the European Union. Iran would redesign, convert, and reduce its nuclear facilities and accept the Additional Protocol. In order to lift all nuclear-related economical sanctions, freeing up tens of billions of dollars in oil revenue and frozen assets. In addition to the joint statement, the United States and Iran issued fact sheets of their own Iran Plans to Destroy Israel .The mullahs seem dead serious about wanting to destroy Israel from middle east ,the concept ideology know how have the
power , every county from middle east want to control but first destroy USA and Israel but exactly how they plan to go about it remains studiously cryptic.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been committed for the past 36 years to a doctrine aimed at wiping Israel off the map. because they have doctrine in the Qur’an that Israel will end by Muslims and President Hassan Rouhani has somewhat softened through speech “All rival factions within the regime, and many outside too, agree that the destruction of the Jewish State constitutes an important tenet of their devotion to Islam, this reflecting a deep ideological conviction in the indispensability of annihilating the “Zionist entity.” in the words of Hizballah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. At the same time, the Iranians present Israel to their audience as an aggressive, agile opponent that benefits from generous Western support. At the very least, the regime is signaling that a military effort would be essential to bring about a collapse in Israel.
On the other hand , the speeches focused on much rhetoric is devoted to mobilizing popular support toward achieving this goal. “Death to Israel” is chanted at rallies all across the country, Iran put ways to destroy Israel by the policy has been continuous Iranian support for Palestinian “resistance” movements, the more radical the better. Iran thus presents itself as more dedicated to this noble Arab cause than the Arabs themselves.
Iran’s policy toward Israel transcends regional posturing and rhetorical ritual. Over the years Tehran’s hostile activities support the assessment that Iran is engaged in a sustained campaign to shape the regional landscape for an eventual effort to draw Israel into a doomsday war. This effort started in 1982 with the establishment of Hizballah and evolved into the creation of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a military alliance with Hamas. A year ago Iran formed a new militia in Gaza, “al-Sabeerin” (HSN), and more recently it extended itself through attempts to operate proxy groups in Syria along its borders with both Israel and Jordan. Iran has made sure that missiles provided to its partners in the “Axis of Resistance” can reach every coordinate in Israel, and it has invested lavishly in developing and deploying hundreds of long-range missiles capable of hitting Israel from its own territory. the conflict start since 9/11, the Middle East issues have been the focus of international politics. Iran’s role has also been at the center of Middle Eastern issues. Iran’s newly significant roles in shaping international politics of the Middle East focused on ( Acting as a balancing political force in regional crises such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon; Its geopolitical posture in the battle against global terrorism and being situated between, the two major bases of global terrorism i.e. Afghanistan and Iraq; and Its influence among the Shiite factions who are currently at the center of the Middle East’s shifting politics).
Iran’s Relations with Iraq
There are relation with Iraq stared from the first war it took eight-year but the situation change nowadays and Iran’s Iraq policy is currently affected through Iranian society, there exists a kind of traditional threat perception regarding Iraq, and the new developments stemming from the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its aftermath have prompted Iran to become motivated to eliminate the traditional Iraqi threat by enhancing firm security and political cooperation with the new government. In this sense, from the standpoint of the Iranian elites, having a political-strategic relationship with a Shiite friendly government can help Iran to withdraw from its traditional threat perceptions of Iraq as an strategic military adversary. There are still some new threats which stem from Iraq’s domestic situation and the
current power struggle (probable fragmentation, civil war, factional rivalry, etc.) that could have a profound impact on Iranian foreign policy. Given its relations with the Arab world and other regional players such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, with respect to Iraq.
Iran-Syrian Relations
There are also relation between Iran and Syria .Firstly, Syria was the only Arab country which sided with Iran in its eight-year war with Iraq and Syria to be a strategic ally with fundamentally common interests, This perception is founded on the recent history of close relations and existing regional realities on the one hand, and the perceived threat stemming from the U.S. presence in the region on the other. Furthermore, the two governments are linked religiously, as the ruling classes of both countries are Shiite. and the combined hostility of the supposedly secular leadership of the Sunni Arab countries.
In addition, Syria and Iran have common strategic interests in the region, particularly with respect to Hezbollah in Lebanon. we can say the relations between the two nations will stay strong as long as they both believe that firm cooperative efforts can further influence important regional political-strategic issues (such as tensions with Israel and other general national security questions) in a positive way for both countries.
To sum up , we can conclude from the article The nature of Iranian foreign policy towards Iraq and Syria has been pragmatic and in accordance with geopolitical and political-cultural realities of the region especially after the 2003 Iraqi crisis. As long as the U.S. war policy continues and U.S want to destroy middle east. Furthermore, the Israel and USA efforts should be directed at curtailing Iran’s drive to broaden the “Resistance Wall” around Israel. This requires not only Israeli measures to insulate the West Bank from Iranian penetration and foil attempts to establish a new front on the Golan Heights, but also a determined U.S.-led effort, together with regional allies, to prevent an Iranian victory in Syria and curb Iranian predominance in Iraq. A direct connection exists between the battle for the Levant and the danger of a war between Iran and Israel. But there are anther scenarios about Arab Gulf States are in solidarity with Israel because of common interests. But we have to ask ourselves what about the citizens in the middle east ? what they want ? we need surely energize the Islamic Republic’s oath to destroy Israel and liberating Palestine with restoring stability in the Middle East.
By, Miral AlAshry, [email protected]
* Assistant professor at Canadian International College ( CIC) Egypt
* Media Advisor at International Federation of African Women( IFOFW).
* Media Advisor at World Federation of United Nation (WFUN) Egypt .
