Iran funds terrorism no matter how much some people fervently believe an Iran nuclear deal will turn Iran into a responsible regional power following "international norms and international rules".
Iran significantly increased its funding in 2021 for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime’s primary tool for exporting Islamist extremism and supporting terrorist groups, according to a new report released on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). This budget increase strongly suggests that the regime would use any financial windfall associated with a new nuclear agreement to boost support for its regional proxies and paramilitary forces.
You may recall the hopes of authors of the 2015 deal (quoting an article):
President Barack Obama has spoken of his ambition to bring Iran in from the cold, saying the long-time US foe could be “a very successful regional power” if it agrees to a deal over its nuclear programme. ...
“There's incredible talent and resources and sophistication inside of Iran, and it would be a very successful regional power that was also abiding by international norms and international rules, and that would be good for everybody,” Mr Obama said.
And you may recall the president's and "officials'" reassurances that Iran would send the financial windfall to domestic development:
Before the nuclear deal with Iran, our government said that any windfall from lifting sanctions would have to be devoted entirely to domestic rebuilding:
“We gave [our Gulf Arab allies] our best analysis of the enormous needs that Iran has internally and the commitment that Iran has made to its people in terms of shoring up its economy and improving economic growth,” Mr. Obama said at the conclusion of a meeting with leaders of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.
No worries!
Well, let's just say that Iran won't "dramatically" increase their funding for aggression:
The [American] officials also claimed that most of the sanctions, including multilateral sanctions, could be snapped back into place if Iran cheated, and they argued that giving Iran tens of billions of dollars in cash won’t dramatically increase Iran’s spending on terrorism and other nefarious activities.
This summer, we find that notwithstanding the enormous internal needs of Iran that Iran has doubled their defense budget:
The government budget did increase 35 percent this year but not a lot of the additional $25 billion went to fostering economic growth. The defense budget nearly doubled, to $19 billion.
I only started out life as a math major, so maybe my skills have atrophied, but doubling the defense budget seems like a lot. Perhaps even "dramatic."
[Israeli Mossad and Shin Bet] personnel had gone to Iran last year. There they seized and questioned Mansour Rasouli, a member of Quds Force Unit 840, which carries out assassinations overseas. Rasouli admitted that he had been assigned to arrange the assassination of an Israeli diplomat in Turkey, an American general officer stationed in Germany and a journalist in France.
The DOD spokesman recognizes what Iran does:
But nobody here at the department is oblivious to the fact that Iran continues to be a malign actor in the region. They continue to support terrorist groups; they continue to develop a ballistic missile program. They obviously, even as they sit in negotiations, continue to develop certain nuclear capabilities. And they are harassing shipping and clearly pose a threat in the maritime domain. You pick it. There's an awful lot there that Iran is doing in a malign way in the Middle East region.
Notwithstanding that moment of clarity, the administration believes that an Iran deal will solve the Iran problem. I can't even explain this Smart Diplomacy®:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers late last week that the United States will not stop Russia from cashing in on a $10 billion contract to build out portions of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
What are the odds that Putin would seek revenge for American support to Ukraine by quietly enabling Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions?
The spirit of John Kerry lives on despite the record of Iran taking no breaks at all in destabilizing the region and killing people to achieve that.
There is a bizarre love for Iran's mullah-run regime in America that is unrequited and destined to get people killed at the hands of Iran's refinanced killers.
NOTE: War coverage continues at this post.
