The Iranian Resistance welcomes the approval of legislation by the U.S. House of Representatives to impose further sanctions against the clerical regime and its senior officials for production and proliferation of ballistic missiles and views it as a necessary step vis-a vis the regime’s belligerent and terrorist policies.
The mullahs’ missile program, that is totally controlled by the IRGC, has no objective but to pursue the mullahs’ further belligerence and meddling in the region. The clerical regime has devoted a significant budget to this program while the majority of the Iranian people live below the poverty line. This program is solely for the regime’s survival and is against the prime interests of the Iranian people.
The clerical regime is spending billions of dollars on its missile program while Iranian cities have been scenes of protests by an outraged population whose wealth has been plundered by the IRGC and other suppressive entities, or their minimum salaries have not been paid for several months. The protestors chant, “forget about Syria, think about us.”
The “Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act” authorizes the US Government to impose sanctions on “an agency or instrumentality of the Government of Iran if the agency or instrumentality,…seeks to develop, procure, or acquire goods, services, or technology that materially contributes to efforts by the Government of Iran with respect to ballistic missile-related goods, services, and technologies.” According to this Act, a foreign person or an agency or instrumentality of a foreign state that knowingly provides material support to the Iranian regime that materially contributes to ballistic missile-related goods, services, and technologies, and a foreign person that the U.S. President determines knowingly engages in a significant transaction or transactions with, or provides significant financial services for, a foreign person or an agency or instrumentality of a foreign state with respect to ballistic missile-related goods, services, and technologies should be subject to sanctions.
Focusing on the missile project, in particular the production and proliferation of ballistic missiles, is one of the priorities of the IRGC that is pursued by its Aerospace Force, one of the five branches of the IRGC. Hassan Rouhani on October 13, 2017 reiterated that the regime will increase its focus on the advancement of its missiles program.
Immediate and comprehensive implementation of this Act subsequent to its passage by the US Congress, and imposing sanctions on all the individuals, entities, institutions, and companies affiliated to the regime’s missiles program is a pressing imperative for peace and tranquility in the region. In addition to the IRGC, Khamenei, his office, and most state entities are involved in the regime’s missiles program.
The legislation to prevent the Lebanese Hezbollah access to international financing that was also passed by the House of Representatives makes the need for imposing comprehensive financial sanctions on the IRGC even more pressing since Hezbollah is part of the IRGC and is totally controlled by it. In a speech in June 2016, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, acknowledged that the group receives all of its funds from the Iranian regime. He said, “We are open about the fact that Hezbollah’s budget, its income, its expenses, everything it eats and drinks, its weapons and rockets, are from the Islamic Republic of Iran… As long as Iran has money, we have money.”
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 26, 2017