A senior US military official has said that the Iranian Regime’s support of the Houthi terrorists has helped the militia group to target ships that belong to the Saudi-led coalition fighting to restore the internationally recognised government in Yemen.
General Robert Ashley, Director of the Defence Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iranian regime’s “low-cost, high-payoff support” helped the Houthis to “improve their military and missile capabilities, demonstrated through missile launches against targets in Saudi Arabia and Saudi-led coalition ships in the Red Sea”.
Ashley reported that “anti-ship missiles, explosive-laden boats, and mines” used by the Houthis now pose a “threat to vital international shipping lanes through the Red Sea”.
Ashley also said that Iranian regime’s regional goals had not been diminished.
He said: “Iran is poised to wield the most power in a post-conflict environment [in Syria]. We expect Iran to transition to efforts that secure and increase its long-term influence and to look for new opportunities to challenge its regional adversaries.”
These regional adversaries that are backed by and loyal to Iran, include many Shia militia groups that can increasingly threaten US forces, including the PMF (Hasd Shaabi) in Iraq. These groups want to get the US out of the Middle East and stop the Kurds from gaining independence in order to solidify Iranian regime’s control over the Middle East.
Part of this control over the region can be seen in Iran’s presence in Syria, where the Iranian Regime is propping up the Assad regime and also building a “land bridge from Tehran through Iraq and Syria into Lebanon” to assist in the easy transport of weapons, cash, and troops to Iranian proxy groups across the Middle East.
It can also be seen in Iran’s pursuit of long-range cruise missiles, like the one acquired from Russia last year.
Ashley confirmed that following the signing of the nuclear deal, aka the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran increased the funding of its security forces.
He then posited that following the recent protests in Iran that began over economic difficulties that Iran would increase domestic spending in order to placate its people. This is not correct. The Iranian Regime has no wish to abide by the wishes of its people and so the solution to Iranian regime’s international crisis is the same as Iran’s meddling in the Middle East: regime change led by the people of Iran and their organised, democratic resistance force, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
Source » ncr-iran