July 4, 2023 | Politico Europe
Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities are a growing threat to Europe
However unsatisfying diplomatic and economic options against Tehran may seem, the failure to course-correct will signal the West is genuinely afraid to take any action.
July 4, 2023 | Politico Europe
Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities are a growing threat to Europe
However unsatisfying diplomatic and economic options against Tehran may seem, the failure to course-correct will signal the West is genuinely afraid to take any action.
Excerpt
As Europe struggles to combat Iran’s drone proliferation to Russia for use against Ukraine, it can ill afford to ignore improvements to an even greater unmanned aerial threat that may soon land on its doorstep: the country’s ballistic missile arsenal — the largest in the Middle East.
While Iran’s much reported potential transfer of short-range ballistic missiles to Russia is yet to materialize, the causal force behind this is likely not Tehran’s fear of transgressing some unwritten agreement that’s being secretly negotiated with Washington. Instead, the Islamic Republic may well be waiting for the termination of U.N. prohibitions on ballistic missile testing and transfers this October, before further arming Moscow with precision-strike systems.
Behnam Ben Taleblu is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is the author of “Arsenal: Assessing the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ballistic Missile Program.” This article originally appeared in Politico Europe. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.