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Iran's top lawmaker accused the United States today of seeking to tighten its military grip on the Middle East by bolstering missile defenses in neighboring states, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Feb. 1).
"Regional countries should know that this puppet show by the U.S., while claiming to create security in the region is nothing except a new political ploy to increase the (American) military presence at the expense of others," said Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani.
The United States is believed to be increasing the pace of deployment of Patriot Advanced Capability 3 systems in four nations near Iran and keeping up continuous patrols of the Persian Gulf by warships equipped with missile interceptors.
Iran's missile arsenal has a reach of 1,200 miles, putting Israel and U.S. military installations in the Middle East in range of its weapons.
Larijani, who once served as Tehran's top nuclear negotiator, urged other countries in the region not to be "deceived by U.S. anti-Iran plans."
"When, in the past 31 years, has Iran attacked any of its neighboring states or any other countries in the region?" he asked, adding that the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s was instigated by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (Nasser Karimi, Associated Press/Washington Post, Feb. 2).
One Iranian analyst warned, though, that the U.S. missile defense deployments could increase the likelihood of aggression by Tehran against other Middle Eastern nations.
''The official line in Iran is that if the Persian Gulf countries cooperate with our enemies against us, we reserve the right to defend ourselves even by attacking them,'' the analyst told the Sydney Morning Herald.
''Normally, what the Iranian officials do in such circumstances is start reaching out to their allies in the region. After the Iraq war, the Revolutionary Guards carried out research into the Iraq experience, and one lesson they drew was that the biggest mistake Saddam Hussein made was in trying to defend himself inside Iraqi territory. They concluded that if they are threatened, they will try to defend themselves not only inside Iran but also outside,'' the expert said (Robert Tait, Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 2).