Is West Trying to Repeat Iraq Scenario in Iran?

As a number of Iranian officials have sensed, a new plot is being cooked for Iran, as the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had constantly warned. A number of western players have already started to bring up Iran’s missiles program as leverage to pressure Iran after the nuclear deal. On Thursday, Reuters said that it was given access to a confidential report written by UN chief Ban Ki Moon, in which he called Iran’s missile tests “inconsistent with the constructive spirit” of the nuclear deal. Ban apparently leaves it for the Security Council to interpret its own resolutions. The council is due to discuss the report on July 18, according to Reuters. Quite at the same time, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a domestic German intelligence service, said it found that, despite the nuclear deal, Iran has continued its “illegal proliferation-sensitive procurement activities” at a “quantitatively high level,” CNN reported. “This holds true in particular with regard to items which can be used in the field of nuclear technology,” added the 2015 Annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution, which was presented to the public on 28 June 2016 by Germany’s Federal Minister of the Interior.

The US State Department said it has no indication Iran was violating the deal. However, the intelligence report seems to have provided the ground for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s remarks made on Thursday addressing the parliament in Berlin in which she said “Iran continued unabated to develop its rocket program in conflict with the relevant provisions of the UN Security Council.” She also said NATO’s anti-missile mechanism was targeted against Iran’s missile program and had been “developed purely for defense.”

This has prompted delight among the hawks in the United States. Thrilled at the unverified reports of Iran’s allegedly secret attempt to violate the JCPOA in pursuit of nuclear arms, Republican Majority Leader of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy wrote, “The House will vote on new sanctions for Iran next week because if we don’t do something, an emboldened and stronger Iran will be an even greater threat to their region and the world.”

In response to recent remarks by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and German Chancellor Angela Merkel against Iran’s ballistic missile launches, Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said Iran’s missile tests do not violate any international resolutions and the simultaneous remarks portend a new plot against Iran. “Western leaders resort to political and unprofessional remarks to promote themselves. However, Iran’s diplomatic officials will respond to them with vigilance,” Boroujerdi said. “Iran’s missiles are not able to carry nuclear warheads and are merely [aimed at] increasing the country’s defensive power,” PressTV quoted him as saying.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi has also dismissed Merkel's remarks as "not constructive" saying they would have no bearing on the country’s missiles program, according to state news agency IRNA. Reiterating Tehran’s assertion that the missiles are not designed to carry nuclear weapons, he added: “Iran will continue with full force its missile program based on its defensive plans and national security calculations.”

Several other Iranian officials have joined to express concern as they see the early signs of a sinister thought. The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, criticized the comments by Ban and Merkel and denied Iran had been trying to purchase nuclear technology on the black market. “I feel they are cooking up a plot against us. We should be vigilant,” Tasnim news agency quoted Salehi as saying. Iran’s deputy foreign minister for European and American Affairs, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, has also termed Merkel’s remarks as “inappropriate and unconstructive”, saying Tehran does not expect such positions from a country with amicable bilateral relations. IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaei has also condemned Ban Ki Moon for his alleged confidential report, saying he has lost his moral and professional competence to work in an international organization.

On Saturday, reform-oriented Vaghaye Daily, published an article, “A New Conspiracy”, in which it analyzed the recent developments. According to the article, sources close to Iranian nuclear negotiations have expressed concern that Ban, who played an insignificant role in the historic nuclear deal, should naturally have little information on the details and subtleties of the deal and might ruin the deal under the influence of pressure groups that made him remove Saudi Arabia from the blacklist of groups violating children’s rights in armed conflict.

Do not look for the problem with Iran’s missiles program somewhere else as some do. Noting a consensus among Iran’s elites that the country’s missile capabilities must be maintained, Washington-based Al-Monitor writes “disagreement remains over whether missile ranges need to be expanded or accuracy and guidance need to be improved”. The truth is that neither range nor accuracy of Iran’s missiles makes a difference for the West because the West’s distrust with Iran is a sham too. Throughout its decades-long history, Iran has demonstrated goodwill, never starting a conflict. Its defense program is also open and aboveboard, a fact deliberately turned a blind eye to in the West. Furthermore, Iran’s role has been instrumental in fighting terrorism in the region. And these should normally serve as enough proof. But not to blind eyes.

That is why, apart from jeopardizing the nuclear deal, leaders in Tehran are rightfully concerned that the missiles program would be the next excuse sold to the global community. In the light of the Chilcot inquiry, the prospects seem even more dreadful. Even though Iran is nothing like Iraq under Saddam Hussein, what the West has demonstrated encourages an unwanted analogy with what happened in the military intervention by US allies in Iraq. Iraq bent after several years of sanctions followed by an invasion sponsored and cooperated by the world’s greatest military powers. Little more than a decade ago, the empty rhetoric of fanatical politicians together with manipulation of truth through media triggered a war that killed thousands, displaced millions and has given birth to the illegitimate child that ISIS is. Admittedly, Iran’s strategic allies, increased global awareness of Iran’s true image, and the country’s public solidarity and military capabilities have built a wall so high, only a full-fledged world war could crack. However, these may not suffice to stop warmongering leaders. Pursuing a similar scenario in Iran, even in the long run, is an impossible yet terrifying mistake which is up to the Obama administration to prevent from this very moment.