Iran Admits to Missile Factories in Foreign Countries
Top Iranian officials have announced that their country produces missiles in several countries in the Middle East, including Iraq and Syria. They also revealed that they directly supplied missiles produced in a factory in Aleppo, Syria to Hezbollah in its war against Israel in 2006. However, Iran maintains that the function of its weaponry is to defend against Israel and other regional enemies. Mohammad Baqeri, the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, declared in his speech on November 11 at a commemoration ceremony for the father of Iran’s missile program that Iran has incredible missile strength that would deter any of its enemies. To support this claim, he indicated the existence of missile factories in Aleppo since 2002 and that Iran used those missiles to support Hezbollah in 2006, when the Lebanese militant group launched attacks into Israel that provoked Israeli forces to retaliate and infiltrate Hezbollah-controlled territory in southern Lebanon. Despite this, Baqeri asserted that the entirety of Iran’s military program serves as a defense and not as a threat.
Two days after the commemoration, Hussein Sheikh al-Islam, the advisor to the Iranian Foreign Minister, added that Iran manufactures missiles in other countries as well, especially around Israel. Of these countries, he only specified Iraq as an example. He also declared that Iran dispersed the missile technology to allies around Israel in order to prevent an attack with the threat of retaliation.
Although Iran has had close ties to Hezbollah and the Syrian government, this instance is the first time that a high-level Iranian official has admitted to producing weapons in foreign territory. Iran has supported Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, providing intelligence and ground troops in the fight against rebel groups and Islamic State (IS). Iran also supplies pro-Assad Shi’a militias in Syria with military support, creating a system of dependent allies scattered in areas where regional hegemons operate. However, entrusting other governments to protect and oversee the protection of missile production heightens the relationship beyond an alliance for regional power interests.
Western countries have criticized Iran for its missile programs, which continue under the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major world powers. The Council of the European Union warned against ongoing missile testing and the “regional military build-up” including the missile program’s extension into allied countries, as the tested ballistic missiles could hold nuclear warheads. Additionally, as stated by Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Bahram Ghasemi, the missile program and its testing are non-negotiable and a necessary facet of the maintenance of the state in countering regional rivals such as Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Iran’s doctrine of defense has existed since the 1979 Revolution, when Iran combined policies of of deterring potential aggressors and military self-reliance after the West cut ties, ending their previous supply of military technology and weapons. Diplomatically secluded from most of the world, Iran turned to North Korea and China for missile parts to modernize their military, which was exposed as inferior in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. In the last decade, the concept of defense has evolved to include heightened missile capacity and movement beyond its borders. Experts argue that Iran’s military policy is beginning to veer into the offensive, pointing to its soldiers fighting on the ground in Syria as an example, a shift which would drastically transform Middle Eastern power dynamics with Iranian interests becoming forcefully bolstered and undermining other regional players.