The targeted killing of Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah (also known as Abu Mohammed al-Masri), No. 2 in the Sunni terrorist organization Al-Qaida, in Shiite Rian, is more proof that Iran under the Islamic Revolution regime has become a strategic security threat for the US.
Any US administration that takes office on Jan. 20 will need to treat Iran as a strategic threat and handle it as harshly as needed, like the Trump administration did. Any conciliatory turn toward Iran would lead to disaster – not only for the Middle East, but also for the US itself.
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The presence of the senior al-Qaida official and his daughter – who was also the wife of the group's founder, Osama Bin Laden – in Iran was no coincidence. The strong pro-Iranian lobby in Washington and the capitals of Europe might be busy spreading the false picture that Iran is a state that functions as a protective barrier against radical Sunni terrorism, a claim based mainly on the hundreds-years-long conflict between the Sunnis and Shiites, but in retrospect, there has been close cooperation between the Shiite Islamist regime in Tehran and Sunni Islamist terrorist organizations that is anchored in the approach of "the enemy of my enemy is my ally."
That is also the base for Iran's ties to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as for Tehran's alliance with Turkey under the Muslim Brotherhood – all of which are rooted in deep hatred for the US. That hatred does not hinge on the party identified with the occupant of the White House, even if they intend to pacify the ayatollahs' terrorist regime.
More proof of that can be seen in Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif's recent tour of socialist dictatorships in Latin America. While the US is in the midst of a fiery domestic dispute over the results of the presidential election, Zarif has visited Venezuela, Cuba, and Bolivia, all of which are close neighbors of the US. Zarif has met with Venezuela's tyrannical ruler, Nicolás Maduro, to discuss closer military cooperation between Venezuela and Iran, something that Washington should see as a belligerent move. After all, these are two countries rich in natural resources against whom the Trump administration waged an intense economic war using hefty sanctions.
The corrupt totalitarian regimes in Caracas and Tehran nearly collapsed under the weight of the American sanctions. Fear of the chaos that would erupt in Venezuela and Iran if and when these regimes were brought down, should not prompt any change in US policy, but rather spur it on to continue the current administration's approach. Thus far, this policy has avoided direct military confrontations, and has a greater chance of bringing about the longed-for political change.
For years, American administrations, mostly Democratic ones, ignored Iran putting down stakes in south and central America. It spread quickly, resting largely but not entirely, on Hezbollah infrastructure in the large Lebanese immigrant communities that exist in nearly every country south of the US, from Mexico to Argentina. Cooperation between the Iranian satellites and organized crime and drug lords has long since become problem that challenges the peace, security, and stability of some of the world. And now, the last thing we need is to add to that the threat of a nuclear weapons.
According to the latest IAEA reports, Iran has violated and is still violating the 2015 nuclear deal egregiously. There is no longer any doubt that Iran is continuing its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programs. If Iran nuclearizes, it will change not only the balance of power in the Middle East, but in America as well. Iran would be able to turn to its allies in Caracas, Havana, and other places for help in threatening the US. This is a threat that Washington cannot accept. And that is a threat that will only increase if any American administration adopts a policy of pacification toward Iran and the socialist dictatorships in Latin America.
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