Thanks to the billions in cash that former President Barack Obama gave to Iran as part of his nuclear deal, the Islamic rogue state is building up its military at a dizzying rate, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Iran intends to become a Middle East military power and has even said so in an largely ignored announcement that has some U.S. national security experts very worried.
Iran announced late in April that the country’s defense budget was 145 percent larger under leader Hassan Rouhani and that the military is reconstituting itself into a “forward moving force” that means to take the offensive.
Iran has made no secret of their military intentions, nor that the U.S.-dealt cash is the origin of its equipment bonanza. It is even locking up multi-million dollar arms deals with Russia thanks to loosened economic sanctions.
Now members of Congress and American experts on Iran are investigating how much of the Obama administration’s gift of $1.7 billion in cash is being used to fund Middle East terrorism.
“President Obama flat-out caved in to Iran when he handed them the disastrous nuclear deal and $1.7 billion in cash payments that could assist Iran’s military,” Wisconsin Republican Rep. Sean Duffy told the Free Beacon.
Duffy remains staunchly opposed to the nuclear deal, saying “it’s no surprise that the world’s lead sponsor of terrorism would feel emboldened to become more aggressive in the region and flex its military muscle.”
Iranian Brig.-Gen. Kiumars Heidari took the opportunity of Iran’s annual Army Day to announce the military augmentation. The proclamation strangely garnered few headlines in the Western mainstream media, but it has been a subject of fascinated conversation for the last two weeks among Washington national security experts, according to Free Beacon sources.
The long-term goal is for Iran to transform its armed forces into an “offensive” military operation. Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, the army has been used as a means of propping-up the regime and suppressing dissent.
Iran analyst Mahan Abedin says the recent announcement is not only a major policy shift but an indication that Iran intends to increase its martial presence in the Persian Gulf, where there are a preponderance of American military assets.
“This is a major policy announcement with far-reaching consequences for foreign policy and internal defense-related power dynamics,” Abedin wrote. “If implemented properly, Heidari’s proposed modernization policy would not only radically alter Iranian defense doctrine, but just as importantly, it would also reverse the army’s subservient relationship to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).”
Former Pentagon advisor Michael Rubin says the Iran’s military plans should be “no surprise to anyone who has studied Iran,” telling the Free Beacon that the Obama administration was naive to hand-out billions in cash to Iran.