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Countering Iran's Destabilizing Actions in the Middle East
(Center for American Progress) Peter Juul, Brian Katulis, and Shlomo Brom - The newly negotiated agreement with Iran has a specific purpose: reining in Iran's nuclear program. It does not address the rest of Iran's malicious international behavior. Accordingly, the U.S. and its partners in the Middle East and Europe should take active steps to crack down on Iran's ability to foment chaos in the region - and the Obama administration should lead the way. The nuclear agreement is unlikely to change Iran's bad behavior - which in turn is causing great apprehension among U.S. allies in the region. Iran's subversion and proxy network is vast, stretching geographically from Latin America to Afghanistan. Tehran has three main organizations through which it spreads regional instability: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and Lebanese Hizbullah. Tehran's fingerprints can be seen on virtually all of the region's conflicts. With or without a nuclear agreement, Iran will continue to present a severe threat to the stability and security of the Middle East. Countering Iran's malignant regional behavior will require a series of actions from both the U.S. and its Middle Eastern partners. The overall goal should be to degrade and disrupt Iran's effort to destabilize the Middle East. Peter Juul is a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, where Brian Katulis is a senior fellow and IDF Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Shlomo Brom is a visiting fellow.