Iran’s Revolutionary Guard showcases ballistic capabilities to “attack and
destroy” Israel

Observers say move is tactic by more conservative elements in the Iranian
leadership to undermine ongoing nuclear negotiations
Ali M. Pedram Asharq Al-Awsat Sunday, 16 Nov, 2014
http://www.aawsat.net/2014/11/article55338562

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Iranian websites close to the country’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps have run special feature reports and interviews
relating to Iran’s capability to “attack and destroy” Israel using ballistic
missiles, the semi-state-run Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported on
Saturday.

A special feature report published by Fars on three missiles—named
Israel-hitter—stated the missiles could be launched quickly from Iranian
territory to reach targets in Israel, and explained the extensive
infrastructure that has been built underground to house them.

A Tehran-based analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Asharq
Al-Awsat that publishing such “provocative” reports just two weeks before
the November 24 deadline for reaching a comprehensive agreement with Western
powers on Iran’s nuclear program was an intentional move by more
conservative elements in the Iranian leadership, and designed to derail
President’s Hassan Rouhani’s reconciliatory foreign policy approach to close
the nuclear dossier.

More conservative elements within the Iranian political establishment are
under immense pressure to accept the framework of extending the current
nuclear interim deal, which would see some sanctions on Iran remaining and
the Islamic Republic observing ongoing restrictions on its uranium
enrichment program.

One of the main reasons for the current stalemate in negotiations between
Iran, the US and the EU over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program relate
to grave concerns the Western powers have regarding Iran’s posing an
“existential threat” to Israel should it develop the capacity to produce
nuclear weapons.

The rhetoric coming out of Tehran in recent years—most notably, the
controversial comments made by Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
in 2005, in which he reportedly said Israel “should be wiped from the face
of the earth”—have caused concern in the international community and given
the Israeli leadership grounds for pushing for an entire dismantling of Iran’s
nuclear capabilities.

Both the West and Israel fear Iran’s ballistic and nuclear capabilities
could be used in tandem to later produce such weapons. Iran’s new government
has, however, distanced itself from Ahmadinejad’s fiery rhetoric against
Israel and reiterated many times that it is banned from producing nuclear
bombs, not only due to its international obligations under the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, but also due to religiously binding fatwas issued
by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prohibiting the production of such
weapons.

Observers say the publication of the information regarding the missiles, and
the anti-Israel rhetoric, are moves designed to divert attention from Iran’s
nuclear program, which currently is and in future proposed to fall under the
scrutiny of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Others have said they believe the information is designed to carry a message
that any possible threat from Iran against Israel will come via conventional
and ballistic missiles, and not necessarily as a result of the nuclear
program, which is under the stringent scrutiny of the IAEA.

In a recent interview, Ali Abkar Velayati, special adviser on foreign policy
to Khamenei, reiterated comments from Khaled Mishal, the leader of the
Palestinian militant group, Hamas, that “Iran has been providing the
Palestinian fighters with [everything from] bullets to missiles to [aid in
their] fight with Israel.”

Velayati, who is generally known as a moderate conservative politician, said
Iran’s current support for Shi’ite communities across the Arab world would
not have been possible without the ballistic détente Iran had managed to
secure.

Moshen Reza’i, the former commander of the Revolutionary Guard and current
secretary of the Expediency Council, said recently it was Iran’s ballistic
capabilities that had caused the P5+1—the five permanent members of the UN
Security Council plus Germany—“to retreat from their previous policies
against Iran” and begin making conciliations.

In another example of the conservative rhetoric being stepped up from
Tehran, Yahya Rahim Safavi, another former Revolutionary Guard commander—and
a current military adviser to Khamenei—described Khamenei in comments on
Saturday as the “commander of Islamic lands,” with the aim of resisting and
fighting the US and Israel.