Iran's Global Ambition

This is a thoroughly researched and documented assessment of Iran's global ambitions. From Africa to South America, Iran has been insinuating itself into the political structures of the regions. This is one more front in the global Jihad being waged by various Islamic entities. Where one Muslim despot may choose political means, another may choose terroristic tactics. In other cases, Islamic regimes use local versions of Sharia to suppress all who are not Muslims.

Over time the different types of Islamic assault coming from different directions and through different methods is eroding the will of the West. Britain is a prime example of giving more and more concessions and special treatment to Muslim, only to have them demand more and more. Appeasement only begets more attacks.

America in particular and the West in general must form a common front to repel the Islamic Jihad being waged against us.

FROM THE MIDDLE EAST FORUM:

Iran's Global Ambition
by Michael Rubin
AEI Middle Eastern Outlook
March 17, 2008

While the United States has focused its attention on Iranian activities in the greater Middle East, Iran has worked assiduously to expand its influence in Latin America and Africa. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's outreach in both areas has been deliberate and generously funded. He has made significant strides in Latin America, helping to embolden the anti-American bloc of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. In Africa, he is forging strong ties as well. The United States ignores these developments at its peril, and efforts need to be undertaken to reverse Iran's recent gains.

Both before and after the Islamic Revolution, Iran has aspired to be a regional power. Prior to 1979, Washington supported Tehran's ambitions--after all, the shah provided a bulwark against both communist and radical Arab nationalism. Following the Islamic Revolution, however, U.S. officials viewed Iranian visions of grandeur warily.
This wariness has grown as the Islamic Republic pursues nuclear technology in contravention to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty safeguards agreement and multiple United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions. In addition, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has played an increasingly destabilizing role in Iran's immediate neighborhood.[1] But while U.S. officials scramble to devise a strategy to contain, deter, and perhaps roll back Iranian influence in the greater Middle East, Ahmadinejad's government and the IRGC, flush with cash and overconfident with recent success, now aspire to be worldwide players.
Compartmentalized State Department and Defense Department officers focus on Iranian influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf states, and the Palestinian Authority, but a broader perspective that spans country desks suggests that the Islamic Republic now seeks to become a global power. Under Ahmadinejad, Iranian officials have pursued a coordinated diplomatic, economic, and military strategy to expand their influence in Latin America and Africa. They have found success not only in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia, but also in Senegal, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. These new alliances will together challenge U.S. interests in these states and in the wider region, especially if Tehran pursues an inkblot strategy to expand its influence to other regional states.
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