By: Struan Stevenson Mojtaba Khamenei inherited the most powerful office in the Islamic Republic. Yet six months into his tenure, a question once considered unthinkable is surfacing in Tehran. When the Supreme Leader speaks, who still listens? For almost five decades, the answer was obvious. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created a system in which factional warfare could rage beneath the surface, provided everyone ultimately bowed to the Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei preserved that arrangement for more than three decades. Presidents came and went. Clerics competed. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) accumulated power. Yet one principle remained sacrosanct. The Supreme Leader had the final word. Today that principle is under strain. On August 28, Mojtaba Khamenei warned officials against creating false choices between war and negotiation, compromise and confrontation. He urged them to avoid publicizing weaknesses and declared that anything damaging social cohesion was forbidden. The mess...
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Iran: Armed Forces Chief of Staff: If Sanctions Are Lifted We’ll Be One of the World’s Largest Arms Exporters
The Iranian regime will be one of the world’s largest arms exporters if US sanctions are lifted, said Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian regime’s armed forces, on Monday, according to the regime’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, an outlet linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force.
“If the criminal US sanctions are lifted, we will become one of the world’s largest arms exporters,” Bagheri said, stressing that the regime needs to import certain equipment from other countries.
“In the field of self-reliance, self-confidence, and self-sufficiency, we are more than self-sufficient in weapons and equipment, in designing strategies and policies, in operational planning and tactics, and in what we must do in the defense and security of the country. Possibly aside from the world’s three main superpowers, even the Europeans are not self-reliant in this regard,” Bagheri claimed.
Mohammad Mohaddessin, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), reminded that sanctions relief for the Iranian regime is tantamount to Tehran providing weapons to the Hezbollah and other terrorist proxy groups in the Middle East, further adding to warmongering, killings, and insecurity across the region.
Bagheri, as the regime’s senior military official, is clearly acknowledging that sanctions relief will only fuel the regime’s belligerence throughout the Middle East.
It is worth noting that in 2020, then–Iranian regime defense minister Amir Hatami had said that the mullahs’ continued their arms cooperation with a number of countries despite the fact that the regime was under weapons trade sanctions.
The UN arms embargo on Iran ended in 2020, while US sanctions banning the regime from conducting arms sales are still in place. Following the end of the UN embargo, Hatami claimed that the regime’s arms exports will exceed its imports.
The mullahs’ regime has a long history of providing weapons to its long list of proxies checkered in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
By: Struan Stevenson Mojtaba Khamenei inherited the most powerful office in the Islamic Republic. Yet six months into his tenure, a question once considered unthinkable is surfacing in Tehran. When the Supreme Leader speaks, who still listens? For almost five decades, the answer was obvious. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created a system in which factional warfare could rage beneath the surface, provided everyone ultimately bowed to the Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei preserved that arrangement for more than three decades. Presidents came and went. Clerics competed. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) accumulated power. Yet one principle remained sacrosanct. The Supreme Leader had the final word. Today that principle is under strain. On August 28, Mojtaba Khamenei warned officials against creating false choices between war and negotiation, compromise and confrontation. He urged them to avoid publicizing weaknesses and declared that anything damaging social cohesion was forbidden. The mess...
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