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Irans destructive role across the Middle East has become common knowledge and crystal clear for all. During the past two decades, especially, the presence of this regimes proxy militias and affiliated Shiite groups has been considered an overt secret. Yet the question is how has Iran been able to dispatch so many fighters, and on a constant basis, to various flashpoint scenes in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran has trained, equipped, financed and dispatched thousands of fighters to various battlegrounds across the region. However, with its own economy literally in peril, how has Tehran afforded such an expensive campaign?

The mullahs regime is also known to plunder billions from the Iranian peoples pockets, leaving millions across the country living in poverty. Whereas it is worth noting Iran is one of the richest countries in the world in natural resources, registered as enjoying the second largest gas reserves and fourth largest crude oil reserves.

Not long ago Iranian and western media showed how many Tehran locals were resorting to sleeping in graves in the winter cold. The number of homeless people in Iran is skyrocketing at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, many Iranians have been forced to sell body parts, such as kidneys, to help make ends meet, making this a huge market in Iran.

Rallies and demonstrations are also on the rise in Iran as more and more people are protesting very poor living conditions rendered through the disastrous policies implemented by the mullahs regime. Just recently residents of Ahwaz in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan in southwest Iran staged a week-long rally demanding Tehran bring an end to its disastrous desertification campaign that has devastated the local economy. Thousands of people also took to the streets in Tehran in late February demanding secure employment and delayed paychecks.

As the Iranian people suffer, the money needed to provide for their needs is used by the mullahs regime to pursue their own domestic and foreign agendas. As a voice focusing on unveiling such efforts, the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) relies on a vast social base inside the country to gather such intelligence to unveil some of the regimes most sensitive projects.

Senior U.S. officials have in the past acknowledged how the Iranian opposition, People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), has warned the globe over the most important aspects of Irans nuclear program, such as the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and the Arak heavy water plant back in 2002 that sent shockwaves across the globe.

The Iranian opposition has through the years delivered significant blows to the mullahs through over 100 different revelations shedding light on most specifically Tehrans nuclear weapons program. Without such an important campaign the mullahs will most definitely have obtained nuclear weapons by now, placing them in a dangerously powerful position in a tumultuous Middle East.

The MEK has also provided valuable information on Irans terrorism and Islamic extremism, such as unveiling the names of 32,000 hired agents in Iraq back in 2007; training and financing Iranian and non-Iranian forces in Syria in the summer of 2016 along with details and maps; and the Revolutionary Guards role in massacring Aleppo residents in December 2016.

To train its foreign fighters Iran has launched a network of bases across the country, 14 of which were identified and made public by the NCRI in a February press conference held in Washington. Other such militias are being trained in Syria and Iraq near the very warfronts they are then sent off to.

Iran trains Iraqi Shiite militias in bases across Iraq, dispatching such individuals to pursue Irans objectives in Iraq. Iran also used this asset to target Iranian opposition members formerly in Iraq in 8 different attacks that targeted their camps, Ashraf and Liberty, leaving over 175 MEK members killed and more than 1,000 injured. These attacks were mainly carried out by Iraqi militias under IRGC orders.

To end Irans ability to use proxy militias to wreak havoc across the Middle East the new U.S. administration should target the main entity behind this campaign, being none other than the mullahs cherished IRGC. The designation of this lethal entity as a foreign terrorist organization is long overdue, and such a measure will most definitely send a signal to Iran that both America, and the international community, mean business.

Tehran has to understand that such undertakings will no longer be tolerated, and continuing with such actions and further missile tests will bear a heavy price tag. This approach will place America as a shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian peoples plight to establish freedom and democracy.

Shahriar Kia is a political analyst and member of Iranian opposition (PMOI/MEK). He graduated from North Texas University. He tweets at @shahriarkia.

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Iran: The story of proxy militias - The Hill (blog)

New York Times

Trump Under Pressure to Get Answers From Iran on Missing Ex-FBI Agent New York Times WASHINGTON Last year, when the United States and Iran exchanged prisoners, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the Tehran government had also pledged to help in the search for a long-missing American who had disappeared in Iran in ...

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Trump Under Pressure to Get Answers From Iran on Missing Ex-FBI Agent - New York Times

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Even as the Trump administration seeks to designate the Revolutionary Guard as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, Iran continues its blatant defiance of international norms. Promising roaring missiles if threatened, Tehran has test fired several ballistic weapons capable of delivering nuclear material in just the past month. A fundamentally weak regime with dated military capabilities, Iran is attempting to call the United States bluff, perhaps to gain leverage in any subsequent re-evaluations of the nuclear deal Tehran struck with the Obama administration. Several blistering statements from the White House backed by a round of sanctions presage the administrations muscular new approach. But if it hopes to secure the region, it must systematically target the core destabilizing activities of the regime.

In a steady stream of denunciations, the White House pledged tougher U.S. action if the mullahs continue to violate international norms through illicit missile tests, making clear that the Obama era of appeasement is over. Instead of being thankful to the United States for these agreements, Iran is now feeling emboldened, an official White House statement read. We are officially putting Iran on notice. While many Iranian officials dismissed President Trumps tough talk on the nuclear deal as empty campaign rhetoric, the presidents appointment of fellow anti-regime hardliner Gen. James Mattis demonstrates his intention to deliver.

Perhaps more importantly, the White House has also challenged the regimes extended proxy offensives against U.S. allies and friends in the neighborhood. Such actions underscore what should have been clear to the international community all along about Irans destabilizing behavior across the Middle East, the White House statement continued. Contrary to President Obamas Middle East policy of abandoning friends and allies and trying to make friends with the adversaries, the Trump administration will fully support its friends. Specifically, this stance challenges Irans practice of hiding behind Hezbollah and Houthis militants as it funds and trains them.

Holding a vastly dated arsenal of weapons, Iran is no match for U.S. firepower, leaving only backchannel mercenaries to promote regional dominance. The White House acknowledged this dynamic, specifically characterizing the affront against Saudi forces as being conducted by Iran-supported Houthi militants. This link was never recognized by the Obama administration. Such oversight left Iran free to grow and strengthen its hand in these groups, which terrorize the region and undermine our partners. If the Trump administration will craft a strategy for stunting Irans proxy network, particularly by cutting funding and armament flows, the region would be far safer and more stable.

Noting Mr. Trumps concerns about the nuclear deal being weak and ineffective, the Trump administration addressed a third key issue in the U.S.-Iranian relationship. Rapidly losing money and influence, the nuclear deal allowed the regime to avoid military confrontation over its development program for which it was grossly unprepared. And despite the intention of weakening the regime and strengthening the Iranian people, rushed U.S. concessions granted the regime an eleventh-hour trickle of lifeblood, both financially and symbolically. By rolling sanctions back, destabilizing behavior was ostensibly met with an influx of funds. As such, the deal signaled that military action against Iran was highly improbable, thus essentially greenlighting the illicit activity that effected warnings and sanctions from the White House over the past month. And despite official remarks by Iranian officials denouncing these statements as naive and weak, the regime would be in dire straits if America turns off the faucet opened by the nuclear deal.

Finally, the administrations condemnation for Irans broader support for terrorism demonstrated clear perspective on the direct threat it poses to international security. In addition to supporting Hezbollah, Iran is currently involved in a life-and-death battle in Syria that includes continuous weapon and militant transfer from Iran to Syria. President Bashar Assads downfall in Syria would destroy the linchpin of Irans terror apparatus.

Further, any sustainable resolution calls for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Syria, culling both activity in the country and a pipeline to Hezbollah via the porous borders between Syria and Libya. As Iran finds itself backed into a corner by its regional export of terror, Mr. Trump and his team have many cards to play.

By identifying the gross overreach by the Iranian regime and promising a swift, punitive response, the White Houses stance marked the end of a longstanding American policy of naive appeasement. In so doing, the Trump administration has rightly recognized the true source of instability and existential threat the region faces. Now, instead of issuing broad statements, it must act on a smart strategy for dismantling the key pillars of Irans international terror network and stunting the regimes emboldened overreach.

Shahram Ahmadi Nasab Emran, a professor at Saint Louis University, has participated in international policy forums, including the Policy Studies Organizations 2016 Middle East Dialogue, and has written for multiple Iranian news outlets.

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Forging a new approach to Iran - Washington Times

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tweeted: In the name of God Peace be upon all the freedom loving people of the world. Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP

Irans hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become the latest political figure to join Twitter, despite having been instrumental in getting it banned in the country.

One of Ahmadinejads first tweets from his personal account was a video in which he called on people to follow him at @Ahmadinejad1956.

In the name of God Peace be upon all the freedom loving people of the world, he wrote in English.

The Twitter biography reads: Husband, dad, grandfather, university professor, president, mayor, proud Iranian.

Despite the service being blocked for ordinary citizens, many of Irans top officials tweet regularly, including the president, Hassan Rouhani, and the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Even the office of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, maintains accounts in several languages.

Iranian users who can get round the restrictions using privacy software were quick to point out the irony that Twitter was banned after mass protests against Ahmadinejads re-election in 2009.

The protests, which came after accusations of election-rigging, were considered the first time in the world the service was used to promote and organise demonstrations, and earned the nickname the Twitter revolution.

Twitter and other social media sites would go on to play a significant role in protests around the Middle East during the Arab spring a couple of years later.

Ahmadinejad, who was president from 2005 to 2013, has been pushing for a return to frontline politics in the run-up to the presidential election in May.

However, his erratic and insubordinate style saw him fall out with the conservative establishment during his time as president, and Khamenei advised him last year against running again.

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Iran's Ahmadinejad joins Twitter despite ban - The Guardian

JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday to voice opposition to what the Israeli leader charged were Iran's attempts to establish a permanent military foothold in Syria.

"In the framework of a (future peace agreement) or without one, Iran is attempting to base itself permanently in Syria - either through a military presence on the ground or a naval presence - and also through a gradual attempt to open a front against us on the Golan Heights," Netanyahu told his cabinet in public remarks on Sunday.

"I will express to President Putin Israel's vigorous opposition to this possibility," he said.

Iran, Israel's arch-enemy, has been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's staunchest backer and has provided militia fighters to help him.

Russia, also Assad's ally, is seen as holding the balance of power in achieving a deal on Syria's future. In Geneva on Friday, the first U.N.-led Syria peace talks in a year ended without a breakthrough.

Israeli leaders have pointed to Tehran's steadily increasing influence in the region during the six-year-old Syrian conflict, whether via its own Revolutionary Guard forces or Shi'ite Muslim proxies, especially Hezbollah.

Majority-Shi'ite Iran says its forces are in Syria to defend holy Shi'ite shrines. However, the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces said in November the Islamic republic may seek to set up naval bases in Yemen or Syria in the future.

Last year, Avi Dichter, the chair of Israel's foreign affairs and defense committee, said Iran had tried several times in the past to move forces into the Syrian Golan Heights, next to territory that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Dichter said those moves were repelled, but gave no details.

Netanyahu has said that Israel has carried out dozens of strikes to prevent weapons smuggling to the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah via Syria. Two years ago, Israel and Russia agreed to coordinate military actions over Syria in order to avoid accidentally trading fire.

"I hope that we'll be able to reach certain understandings to lessen the possible friction between our forces and their forces, as we've successfully done so far," he said at the cabinet meeting, referring to the Russian military.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Ros Russell)

BAGHDAD More than 40,000 people have been displaced in the last week from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where U.S.-backed forces launched a fresh push towards the Islamic State-held old city center on Sunday and closed in on the main government complex.

PARIS France's conservatives appeared to be at war with themselves less than 50 days from the presidential election as Francois Fillon clung on to his struggling, scandal-tainted campaign and senior party members fought to oust him as their candidate.

DUBAI Iran has indicted a member of its nuclear negotiating team who was arrested last year on suspicion of spying, and detained an Iranian-American on charges of defrauding people under the guise of helping them emigrate, the Iranian judiciary said on Sunday.

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Netanyahu to meet Putin, says Iran seeks permanent foothold in Syria - Reuters