Top U.S. General: Iranian Regional Meddling Has Increased Since Nuclear Deal

Yemeni women loyal to the Houthi movement hold up rifles as they attend a gathering in the capital Sanaa o Iran has boosted its investments in militant and terrorist groups across the Middle East since the enactment of the 2015 nuclear deal, the nation’s top general who oversees U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

“What it took 20 years for Iran to do in Lebanon with the Lebanese Hezbollah, they’re attempting to do in about five years with the Houthis in Yemen,” General Joseph Votel told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee. “They’re accelerating their pace and their ability to do this.”
Asked whether Iran has reduced, maintained, or enhanced its investment in their proxy forces since the birth of the nuclear deal, Votel said, “I would characterize it as an enhanced investment in their proxies and partners.”
Tehran provides money, weapons, and tactics, to groups throughout the Middle East, in addition to “cultivating a network of operatives across the globe as a contingency to enable potential terrorist attacks,” according to an intelligence community assessment released earlier this month.
Votel also said that he is highly concerned about the expansion, both in quantity and quality, of Iran’s ballistic missile force. Iran holds the largest ballistic missile inventory in the Middle East.
“Like we go out to China Lake to test our weapons systems, they go to Yemen to test their weapons systems,” he said. “They are taking advantage of these opportunities to improve their capabilities around the world. I definitely am concerned about this.”
Iran supports Houthi rebels in the ongoing civil war in Yemen, and has provided them with “increasingly sophisticated maritime and missile attack capabilities.”
In response to questioning from Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, Votel said that Iran’s advancing ballistic missile arsenal, along with the export of those capabilities, represents one of CENTCOM’s main concerns. “These weapons pose the threat of widening the conflict out of Yemen, and frankly put our forces, our embassy in Riyadh, our forces in the United Arab Emirates, at risk,” he said.

Votel also told Cheney that “countering Iran is not one of the coalition missions in Syria.” After some pushback, he said that the U.S. is able to “indirectly” impede Iran’s objectives in Syria by maintaining relationships with Iraqi forces and Syrian Democratic Forces. “In many regards, these partners share the same concerns we do,” he said.n January 14, 2018.

U.S. weighs whether to stay in Iran nuclear deal

U.S. President Donald Trump talks with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley as they attend a session on reforming the United Nations

UNITED NATIONS, Reuters, SEP. 20, 2017 - The United States said on Wednesday it is weighing whether the Iranian nuclear deal serves its security interests even as Iran said it did not expect Washington to abandon the agreement.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed that his country would not be the first to violate the agreement under which Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for the loosening of economic sanctions that had crippled its economy.
“We don’t think Trump will walk out of the deal despite (his) rhetoric and propaganda,” Rouhani told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders. He also ruled out the idea of renegotiating the pact.
Trump told reporters he had made a decision on what to do about the agreement but would not say what he had decided.
Matters were no clearer after Iran and the world powers that negotiated the deal - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - met for talks that a European source said included a long discussion between the U.S. and Iranian foreign ministers.
It was the first time that the two men, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, had met since Trump took office on Jan. 20.