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** Iran's Deepening Military Expansion Into Europe ([link removed])
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by Con Coughlin • July 29, 2022 at 5:00 am
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* The Iranian regime's decision to give its backing to Russia's military offensive against Ukraine... represents an alarming expansion in Iran's military ambitions beyond the Middle East.
* Arguably Khamenei's most revealing comment during the visit was his call for Iran and Russia to increase what he termed "reciprocal cooperation" between the two countries to counter the threat of Western sanctions.
* The concern now, say Western security officials, is that the commercial ties between the two countries will lead to closer military cooperation.
* Iran's very public displays of support for Russia certainly undermine the long-standing assumption of American and European policymakers that the Iranian threat, allowing Iran unlimited nuclear weapons, relates only to the Middle East -- and specifically against Israel.
* US President Joe Biden's confused position on the Iran issue has been further exposed by the head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency, who told this month's Aspen Security Forum that, in his view, Iran had shown little interest in negotiating a new nuclear deal.
* The truth of the matter is that Mr Biden's policy on Iran has become completely untenable, and the sooner he and his officials recognise their courtship of Tehran is doomed to end in failure, the better it will be for all concerned.

The Iranian regime's decision to give its backing to Russia's military offensive against Ukraine represents an alarming expansion in Iran's military ambitions beyond the Middle East. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi hold a meeting in Tehran on July 19, 2022. (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran's deepening involvement in supporting the Russian war effort against Ukraine should serve as a wake up call to Western leaders that Iran's military threat is no longer solely confined to the Middle East.

Ever since the ayatollahs seized control of the country more than 40 years ago, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime's standard bearers, have mostly confined their military activities to the Middle East region, whether it is waging war against neighbouring countries like Iraq or threatening Israel through its proxies in Lebanon and Syria.

The only occasions when the IRGC has ventured beyond the Middle East has been to carry out terrorist operations, such as the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Argentina that killed 85 people and wounded more than 300, or the recent wave of terrorist attacks it has carried out in Europe.

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