US Congress Eying New Measures Against Iran’s Missile Program
The US Congress is mulling over new punitive measures against a wide range of activities supporting Iran’s missile and drone programs.
The US Congress is mulling over new punitive measures against a wide range of activities supporting Iran’s missile and drone programs.
The new measures are in the framework of a bill, titled Fight CRIME Act, introduced on Tuesday by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Ranking Member Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), along with Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia Chairman Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Ranking Member Dean Phillips (D-MN).
The bipartisan bill would impose sanctions on activities related to the Islamic Republic’s missile and drone programs ahead of the October 2023 expiration of the UN missile ban on Iran.
"Even with the UN restrictions in place, Iran's missiles and drones are targeting US troops, allies, and partners across the Middle East and increasingly fueling Vladimir Putin's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine,” said the lawmakers. “Without urgent action, Iran's missiles and drones could wreak even greater havoc around the globe come October.”
The new bill came as Tehran has continued its malign activities in the Middle Eastr and and talks to revivie the 2015 nuclear deal have failed despite long negotiations in 2021 and 2022.
"We are proud to introduce the Fight CRIME Act to constrain Iran's arsenal, deter malign actors from supporting Iran and its proxies, and keep these dangerous weapons from proliferating onto new battlefields, regardless of whether UN restrictions remain in place," read a statement by the congresspeople who introduced the bill.
The measure would impose mandatory property blocking and visa sanctions on anyone involved in the supply, sale, or transfer of, or support for, Iran’s missiles and drones including by acquiring or transferring Iranian missiles and drones; providing Iran or its proxies with items that may contribute to the development of missiles or drones; participating in joint missile or drone development with Iran or its proxies; and importing or exporting any restricted missile or drone-related materiel to or from Iran.
The new act also requires the Biden administration to submit a report on Iranian missiles and drones to Congress, specifically outlining a strategy to prevent missile and drone-related restrictions under Annex B to UNSCR 2231 from lapsing in October; and an assessment of the impact a lapse would have on Iran’s malign activities and potential financial benefits to the regime.
The measure also calls for a description of the role sanctioned Iranian airlines are playing in the regime’s weapons proliferation, and a list of violators of UN missile and drone-related restrictions on Iran and international efforts to hold them to account.
The Islamic Republic has tried for a long time to keep its missile program apart from the US and global sanctions on its nuclear program, but recently – particularly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine – the threats of its missile program have become more apparent to the West. Iran keeps supplying drones for the Russian forces as well as its proxies across the region, but insists that the missile program is meant for deterrence.
However, the Islamic Republic’s state media keep bragging about developing missiles and drones and distributing them among allies throughout the Middle East.
In an article in December, media affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards boasted about its “integrated missile network” and how it has armed the axis of “resistance” in the Middle East, a term which refers to a network of pro-Iranian proxies and Tehran-backed militias across the region, particularly Hezbollah, the Palestinian groups and Houthis in Yemen.
In February, France said that there must be a stronger "international response" to the threat posed by Iran's ballistic missiles program, with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna conveying her country’s position to her US counterpart Antony Blinken. "The minister mentioned Iran's destabilizing activities and the increasing threat posed by the increase of its ballistic missiles arsenal, the proliferation of missiles including towards non-state actors (...) and the need to strengthen the international response to this threat," said the ministry, regarding Colonna's talks with Blinken.
According to informed sources, Tehran exerted strong pressure on Hamas to respond to assistance it has received over the years and unite with Islamic Jihad, a close affiliate of the Iranian regime, to launch a fresh wave of attacks.
In a surprise air strike early Tuesday, Israel killed three Islamic Jihad commanders in Gaza, who had planned attacks from Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
A large number of rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel Wednesday afternoon, in what appeared to be Palestinian retaliation for the targeting of Islamic Jihad commanders.
Dawoud Shehab, a spokesperson for the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, had said Israel "must expect a response at any moment and anywhere,” but one day after the air strike, a tense calm still prevailed.
The chief of Iran’s general staff Mohammad Bagheri said Wednesday that Iran “will assist Palestine with all its power,” according to Tasnim news agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).
Meanwhile, one source told Iran International that Tehran’s pressure has deepened existing policy disagreements among Hamas leaders.
As a tense calm prevailed earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is ready to fight Iran on multiple fronts if needs be. He insisted that “95% of Israel’s security problems come from Iran,” referring to “an attempt by Iran to start a multi-front campaign against us.”
Israel blamed Iran for a large-scale military confrontation in early April when Palestinian groups aligned with the Islamic Republic launched hundreds of rockets against Israel from Gaza and Lebanon.
Iranian officials did not try to hide their satisfaction that the “resistance front”, as they call their militant proxies in the region, had “humiliated Israel.” IRGC commander, in particular, call for more military action, boasting that end of Israel is near.
Israel “will do all it can to prevent Iran from establishing terror fronts around us,” Netanyahu said at a conference for a right-leaning group of former senior defense officers.
Iran International’s sources say Hamas leaders in Gaza understand that a new military confrontation will hurt Palestinian civilians and their livelihood. They also have to face the danger of being targeted by Israel. However, leading figures living outside Palestinian territories and enjoying more security and close cooperation with Iran advocate for joining the Islamic Jihad in a new confrontation with Israel.
Iran reached a Chinese-brokered agreement with Saudi Arabia in March to restore diplomatic relations after a seven-year hiatus. Official in Tehran have repeatedly claimed that the move was a strategic defeat for the United States and a victory for Iran.
Having partly reduced their isolation in the region, the Iranian regime seemed emboldened and intensified its rhetoric against Israel in March and April.
Meanwhile, Israel is not just concerned about attacks by Tehran’s proxies and allies, but is also worried about its expanding nuclear program.
By most estimates Iran has accumulated enough enriched uranium to be able to build up to five nuclear weapons within a few months.
Netanyahu also reiterated in statements on Tuesday and Wednesday that Israel will do all it can to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and will try to prevent Iran from “establishing terror fronts around us.”
Hamid al-Husseini is an Iraqi-born Shiite cleric who is the head of Iraq’s section of the Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU), an affiliate of the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance that is practically run by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). The union has more than 200 media outlets in 35 countries, including 100 satellite TV channels, 30 radio stations, and dozens of websites -- several of which are in Iraq.
Al-Husseini has close connections to the Office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a was trusted companion of former Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020.
The Iraqi city of Najaf issued an arrest warrant for Husseini on terrorism charges in 2021, accusing him of orchestrating an attack on the Al-Rafidain Center for Dialogue. However, Iraqi authorities have not acted upon the warrant.
Al-Rafidain Center for Dialogue is a non-governmental organization established in Najaf in 2014 to shape public opinion in support of the democracy, peace and sustained development, but al-Husseini – under the influence of Khamenei – believes that the center is tasked with normalizing relations with Israel.
According to Iran International's Mojtaba Pourmohsen, al-Husseini has managed to get the right to broadcast football (soccer) matches in Iraq for the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iranian controlled Shia umbrella organization of more than 60 different armed factions, with around 128,000 fighters.
Apparently, al-Husseini has been using the media empire to promote the ideology of Iran’s ruler as programs on the sidelines of the matches. However, according to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering watchdog, the cash-rich sport is among the most vulnerable to money laundering, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimating that about $140 billion is laundered globally through soccer each year.
Hacker group Backdoor (3ackd0or) provided Iran International with documents showing al-Husseini and several other people working with him launder money for the Islamic Republic in Iraq.
Al-Husseini, who also has an Iranian citizenship ID and a home in one of the northern neighborhoods in the capital Tehran, has connections in Iraq’s financial institutions and uses them to launder money for the IRGC and the Iranian regime.
Moreover, the Islamic Radio and Television Union provides militia media outlets in Iraq with financial, technological, and organizational support, helps train their personnel, and devises a unified strategy for them to follow, according to the Washington Institute.
The US Treasury Department designated the IRTVU in October 2020 for being owned and operated by the IRGC’s Quds Force, in effect extending its designation of the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization to its media arm. The Treasury Department said at the time that IRTVU is “a propaganda arm of the IRGC-QF.” Not only does the IRGC have a hand in directing the military operations of Iranian-backed proxies, but it also takes a role in their media affairs, advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) said.
According to UANI, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seized 33 websites used by the IRTVU in June 2021, including those associated with Al Alam TV and Press TV, adding to the 92 IRGC-linked domain names seized in 2020, based on a prior Department of Justice (DOJ) determination that the IRTVU disguised itself as a legitimate “news organizations or media outlets [to] target the US with disinformation campaigns and malign influence operations.”
Earlier in the year, Iran International unraveled some details about the inner workings of a Quds force unit tasked with smuggling money from Iraq to Iran.
According to the information, the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Iraq is also involved in the money laundering operations aimed at funneling revenues from oil and gas exports back to Iran. As per a repeatedly extended sanctions’ waiver by Washington, Tehran is only allowed to import medicine and some essential goods from Iraq in exchange for its exports.
This financial network is bypassing the US sanctions at the cost of the Iraqi economy. An informed source in Baghdad told Iran International late in December that Washington has received reports that Iraq is still conducting trade with Iran using US dollars despite sanctions.
The dinar went into a tailspin against the dollar after the New York Federal Reserve imposed tighter controls on international dollar transactions by commercial Iraqi banks in November to halt the illegal siphoning of dollars to Iran.
Under the curbs that took effect in January, Iraqi banks must use an online platform to reveal their transaction details. But most private banks have not registered on the platform and resorted to informal black markets in Baghdad to buy dollars.