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The West Cannot Afford to Be Complacent about the Iranian Threat

(Sunday Telegraph-UK) Amb. Dore Gold - When the UN drafted resolutions covering Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, they required that ballistic missiles beyond the range of 150 km. had to be removed or destroyed under international supervision. Missiles of this range were prohibited outright; they could not be manufactured or transferred to surrogates like Hizbullah. A decade later, no such provisions were created for Iran under the JCPOA. Consequently, Iran's ballistic missile capacity grew, both in numbers and quality, including the range and accuracy of its missile force. Iran is already altering the balance of power in the region, as demonstrated by the January 2020 Iranian attack against U.S. troops at the Ayn al-Assad Airbase in western Iraq that left 110 American servicemen with brain injuries. Iranian proxy forces, such as Yemen's Houthis, have unleashed repeated strikes in the last three years at the Saudi capital, Riyadh, using ballistic missiles and drones. Commander of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, said this month that Iran now had 3,000 ballistic missiles, which had become the greatest threat to Middle Eastern security. Without some major change in Iranian intentions towards Western states, European countries could soon become the very real targets of Iran's increasingly robust missile forces. The writer, former Director-General of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israeli Ambassador to the UN, is President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
2022-03-28 00:00:00
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