Iran Pledges to Defy U.S. Sanctions, Build up Ballistic Missile Program

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by JORDAN SCHACHTEL18 Jan 2016Washington, DC1,431

Iran will ignore recently-passed U.S. sanctions against its ballistic missile program, the regime’s defense minister pledged on Monday, promising to unveil new homemade weapons systems in the near future.

“[Any] attempt to impose new sanctions [against Iran] under irrelevant pretexts is indicative of the continued US hostile policy and acrimony toward the Iranian nation, and a futile effort to undermine Iran’s defense might,” said Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan on Monday.

U.S. sanctions enacted over the weekend will have minimal effect on Iran’s missile development programs, he added.

“Hence, sanctions against [certain] people and companies will have no impact on the development of the industry, and we will actually demonstrate [their ineffectiveness] by displaying new missiles,” Dehqan said, in comments reported by state-run PressTv.

The Defense Minister’s comments follow a statement from Iran’s foreign ministry statement pledging to thwart the United States’ “destructive” sanctions against Iran’s weapons program.

“We will respond to such propaganda stunts and disruptive measures by more robustly pursuing our lawful missile program and promoting our defense capabilities and national security,” read a statement from Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari.

On Sunday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would impose sanctions against a number of individuals and organizations over Iran’s ballistic missile program.

“Iran’s ballistic missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions,” read a statementfrom Adam Szubin, acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “We have consistently made clear that the United States will vigorously press sanctions against Iranian activities outside of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – including those related to Iran’s support for terrorism, regional destabilization, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile program.”

The new sanctions come as Iran is expected to receive tens of billions of dollars in frozen assets in accordance with the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), agreed upon by the regime in Tehran and the P5+1 world powers.

On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerryannounced the U.S. had granted Iran $1.7 billion dollars, repaying the Ayatollah’s theocracy a $400 million dollar debt plus $1.3 billion in interest. Kerry called the payment a “fair settlement.” President Obama agreed, claiming “the settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran.”

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ANALYSIS: Iran Hardliners Generated Crisis with ‘Willing Dupe’ Obama to Solidify Domestic Power

by AARON KLEIN13 Jan 2016348

TEL AVIV – Less than one week before the international community is set to unlock a decade of sanctions imposed on Iran, the country’s Islamic hardliners deliberately generated a crisis with the US for pure domestic consumption with the aim of ensuring the ayatollahs’s continued grip on power.

Once the International Atomic Energy Agency announces on Friday as expected that Iran has fulfilled its obligations under the US-brokered nuclear accord, the billions of dollars in unfrozen accounts and the massive flow of oil exports will usher in historic changes to Iran’s long-isolated economy.

Iran’s hardliners are backed by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, the IRGC, which ultimately answers to the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This nexus of power fears that  the sanctions relief – and renewed ties with the West, primarily the US – will shift the center of gravity toward the Iranian internationalists, largely represented by Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani.

Khamenei’s revolution requires that the West be viewed by Iranians as the enemy; indeed, this is the very raison d’être for the Guards’ continued existence. The hardliners cannot afford to be upstaged by any progress on the economic and political fronts following next week’s sanctions relief.

The BBC last year noticed this trend and accurately reported that “the Guards appear to be pursuing a new doctrine: in order to protect the Islamic Republic at home, Iran must confront threats abroad.”

And so the Guards, knowing they will face few consequences from the Obama administration, seized the opportunity to capture ten sailors after two US Navy patrol boards were accused of crossing into the country’s territorial waters.

The Guards said in a statement that the US military personnel were set free after an investigation had determined they had entered by mistake – but not beforemaximizing the humiliation of the US at home and abroad.

The Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, boastedto Iranian media that Tuesday’s capture and subsequent release of the sailors “proved how vulnerable the U.S. is in front of powerful Iranian forces.”

Iran’s Tasnim news agency furtherquoted Firouzabadi stating, “This incident in the Persian Gulf, which probably will not be the American forces’ last mistake in the region, should be a lesson to troublemakers in the US Congress.”

On Wednesday, Tasnim released video purporting to show a US sailor apologizing for invading Iranian territory. “It was a mistake, it was our fault, and we apologize for our mistake,” an unidentified sailor told the Iranian interviewer, who then asked him if his GPS system penetrated Iran. “I believe so,” he responded.

Of course, the latest events must also be seen through the lens of the wider Shiite-Sunni divide, and the need for the Iranians to regain the narrative and upstage the Saudi axis after the Kingdom’s provocativekilling earlier this month of the prominent Shiite cleric Nimr Baqir al-Nimr.

It is stunning that the Iranians believe they can get away with these provocations while they use the Obama administration as willing dupes for their internal Soviet-esque propaganda efforts.

Columnist Charles Krauthammer rightlynoted:

In October, Iran test-fires a nuclear-capable ballistic missile in brazen violation of a Security Council resolution explicitly prohibiting such launches. President Obama does nothing. One month later, Iran does it again. The administration makes a few gestures at the UN. Then nothing. Then finally, on Dec. 30, the White House announces a few sanctions.

They are weak, aimed mostly at individuals and designed essentially for show. Amazingly, even that proves too much. By 10 P.M. that night, the administration caves. The White House sends out an email saying that sanctions are off — and the Iranian president orders the military to expedite the missile program.

. . . Just two weeks ago, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards conducted live-fire exercises near the Strait of Hormuz. It gave nearby US vessels exactly 23 seconds of warning. One rocket was launched 1,500 yards from the USS Harry S. Truman.

Obama’s response? None.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.”  Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

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