As Washington continues to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, a group of House lawmakers asked President Biden to focus on Iran’s ballistic-missile capabilities. In a recent letter to the president, obtained by National Review, they warned that the administration has failed to respond adequately to a spate of recent developments in Iran’s missile program.
The letter, which was led by Representative Joe Wilson, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee’s national-security task force, cites the test of satellite launch vehicles using new technology as particular reason for concern.
In a statement to NR, Wilson said that the administration lacks “a clear strategy to address the Iranian regime’s” missile threat, and delivered a stark warning about Iran’s capabilities: “Success for the regime means a system capable of delivering an ICBM to the US.”
The group of Republican lawmakers noted that the Biden administration “has expressed concern” over the recent launches, which took place last year, and wrote that they could “potentially put U.S. allies in Europe as well as the U.S. homeland in range.”
“But concern and condemnations are insufficient. Action is needed,” the lawmakers wrote, also noting that the Iranian military launched 16 ballistic missiles during military exercises in December that overlapped with the nuclear-deal talks in Vienna.
Part of the problem is the foreign networks that support the development of Iran’s missile programs. The lawmakers pointed to a report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that linked an Iranian missile strike retaliating in response to the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani to Chinese ballistic-missile technology.
“The Trump administration routinely sanctioned these networks which supported Iran’s missile and military programs as well as those of its proxies, whereas your administration has been lagging in this area,” they wrote.
But the Biden administration has said that it would focus on the nuclear negotiations and not the worsening ballistic-missile problem. Late last month, Robert Malley, the chief U.S. negotiator, reiterated the administration’s position that the Iranian ballistic missiles “are not a subject of these negotiations” and that “it is our objective to get at some point a discussion, a regional discussion that will deal with all these other issues.”
The Wilson letter also comes as emboldened Iranian proxies have struck out against the United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. ally in the region. Last month, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched drone and missile attacks against targets in Abu Dhabi, including a military base where some 2,000 U.S. service members are stationed. Many of those attacks were intercepted by air-defense systems, though three people died in a drone attack on a fuel storage site.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told NR that the recent attacks show a need for the U.S. to impose costs on Iran for these attacks. “Put differently, what kind of punishment is America willing and able to mete out so that the Islamic Republic and its Axis of Resistance are deterred from attacking?”
The State Department last year removed the Houthis from its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, citing concerns that the designation hampered the flow of humanitarian aid to Yemen. But the resurgence in attacks has prompted a new wave of criticism of that move, with the UAE’s ambassador to the U.S. openly calling for the designation to be put back in place. Then, during a press conference last month, Biden confirmed that his administration is considering a move to redesignate the group.
Taleblu also said the U.S. needs to take a multifaceted approach that tackles networks that transfer missile technology to Iran, as well as Iran’s domestic missile-tech research and development, and pointed to a broader strategic aim.
“Moreso than ever before, missiles and other long-range strike weapons are the way Tehran is working to force greater regional accommodation of its aims, while also attempting to drive America out of the Middle East as well as put the squeeze on Israel.”