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OPINION:
Since 1984, Iran has been designated a state sponsor of terrorism. The designation is justified, given Iran’s continued support for proxies and criminal organizations that kill and terrorize innocent people. That behavior continues today, with the government of Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei surveilling, harassing and detaining thousands of Iranians for allegedly aiding Israel, offending the morality police and other alleged crimes.
The U.S.-Israel bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow last month was more than justified. Iran was enriching uranium at 60% purity, a few weeks away from 90% purity for nuclear weapons. Given Iran’s stated intent to destroy Israel, the bombing of these nuclear sites made imminent sense, especially given the International Atomic Energy Agency’s recent report that Iran was concealing information on its nuclear program to include weaponization.
Iran has a long history of using terrorism as a tool of asymmetrical warfare against the U.S. and its allies.
In April 1983, Iran was found guilty of supporting its proxy, Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization, a terrorist organization, for the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 63, including eight CIA officers. One of those officers was Robert C. Ames, director of the Office of Near East and South Asia Analysis.
In October 1983, the Iranian government was responsible for the bombing — by its proxy Hezbollah and its terrorist organization, the Islamic Jihad Organization — of the Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. service members, 58 French soldiers and six civilians, and injured 60.
These two terrorist bombings apparently emboldened Iran into thinking that terrorism can be effective in eroding U.S. resolve. Thus, Iran continued to support its proxies — Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen, and Shiite groups in Iraq and Syria — in its war with the U.S. and Israel.
In June 1996, Iran was responsible for the bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 airmen and injuring 498 U.S. and international military and civilian members. A U.S. court ruled that Iran was responsible for the attack, having provided the funding, support and direction to its proxy Hezbollah Al-Hejaz.
This was the very overt Iran, confident in perpetrating these bold acts of terrorism.
What was less visible, however, was the government’s harsh treatment of its people. The international community saw some of this in 2009 when the government ensured that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected president, despite opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi having widespread support from the public, promising hope and change. This “Green Movement” galvanized the Iranian people, resulting in protests, demonstrations and civil disobedience. The regime’s response was predictable: using brutal force to suppress the demonstrations and arrest the protesters.
This has always been the regime’s response to peaceful protests: suppressing and arresting the protesters. We saw this in September 2022 when Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian, died in police custody after having been arrested by the so-called morality police for improperly wearing her head scarf, or hijab. Eyewitnesses reported that Ms. Amini was severely beaten and died because of police brutality.
The Iranian people were irate with the brutal death of Amini. Protests erupted throughout Iran. Iran Human Rights reported that security forces had killed at least 476 people. Amnesty International reported that Iranian security forces fired into groups with live ammunition and killed protesters by beating them with batons.
Amini’s death gave rise to the global “Woman Life Freedom” movement.
The regime is now conducting a war against its own people, with widespread arrests of anyone protesting human rights abuses or corruption of the regime in power.
We would be remiss to think the ayatollah has given up on the use of terrorism to intimidate and deal with those opposed to his leadership. We would also be remiss to believe that theocracy will cease pursuing a nuclear weapons capability. The regime wants sanctions relief, and it’s prepared to eschew nuclear weapons to get it. Eventually, however, the regime will pursue its nuclear weapons program. We should be prepared.
• The author is the former director of the National Counterproliferation Center and the special envoy for six-party talks with North Korea, as well as the former associate director of national intelligence. The views are the author’s and not those of any government agency or department.
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