Iran’s meddling on the increase

Iran is facing one of the worst public health crises in its modern history. Tens of thousands of people there have been infected with the coronavirus disease

(COVID-19) and more than 2,000 have lost their lives. But the Islamic Republic and its proxies appear to be prioritizing the regime’s revolutionary ideals, military adventurism and pursuit of regional hegemony over the public health crisis that the nation is facing. For example, Iran-backed militias in Iraq are ratcheting up their rocket attacks amid the coronavirus crisis. One attack killed several members of the US-led anti-Daesh coalition at Iraq’s Camp Taji base on March 11. The US took retaliatory measures by conducting precision strikes against Kata’ib Hezbollah bases across Iraq, including targeting five of their weapons storage facilities. Iran is a major supplier of weapons and rockets to Shiite militias across the region. The Tehran regime has long been trying to boost its ballistic missile capacity throughout the region, in defiance of international norms and sanctions. Iran’s transfer of ballistic missiles to other countries raises the question of whether Tehran is violating UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which stipulates that: “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

Iran also appears to be setting up new militia groups in Iraq.

One such Shiite militia, which calls itself Usbat Al-Thayireen, or League of Revolutionaries, was likely established and armed by Tehran. In a video it released, a masked man holding a Kalashnikov-style assault rifle warned that attacks on Camp Taji and the Basmaya military base were only the beginning of a larger offensive. Through its influence in the Iraqi government, the Iranian regime previously pushed Iraq into recognizing a conglomerate of Shiite militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces as “legitimate” groups, incorporating them into the state apparatuses and making the Iraqi government allocate wages and ammunition for them.

In another Arab country, Syria, the Iranian regime has ratcheted up its efforts to recruit young Shiite fighters. Iranian forces and aligned Syrian militias such as Saraya Al-Areen have recruited about 9,000 young fighters from Shiite communities in Sayda,

Da’el and Izraa and sent them for military training, according to the Syrian Observatory for

Human Rights (SOHR). Mass recruitment can also be witnessed in the northeast of the country, around the Euphrates River and Deir Ezzor province.

Iran’s modus operandi is also anchored in exploiting religion and using sectarianism as a powerful tool to gain power and further the regime’s parochial, religious and political ambitions. The young people recruited by Iran are generally forced into carrying out various crimes against civilians, including torture, kidnapping, the use of child soldiers, widespread demolition of buildings, indiscriminate attacks, and unlawful restrictions on the movement of people fleeing the fighting.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is an Iranian-American political scientist.

Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

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