Experts: Nuclear Talks Ignore Iran’s Missiles at World's Peril

June 10, 2015

Three weeks before a deadline for a comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran, the failure to address the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program in any agreement could be a dangerous omission, a panel of experts told U.S. lawmakers Wednesday. When Iran and the P5+1 group - the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany - announced a "framework" understanding on which a final deal, due by June 30, would be based, the issue of Iran’s missiles was not included. Yet Tehran, the experts pointed out, has the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East.

David Cooper of the U.S. Naval War College testified before the House Foreign Affairs sub-committee on the Middle East and North Africa, that the links between medium and long-range missiles and a nuclear payload are clear. "At this moment, Iran is the only country in the world that says it has no nuclear weapons ambitions and yet has fielded an intermediate-range ballistic missile," Cooper said.

Robert Joseph, senior scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy, underlined what's at stake if a deal that is flawed - as he sees it - goes forward. "If there is an agreement along the lines described by the White House and the Iranian leadership, I believe it will represent the single greatest strategic mistake in the national security area in the last 35 years," he said.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency) said he fears the consequences if the deal now on the table goes through. "Once sanctions are lifted, the genie is out of the bottle; we’re going to see proliferation in the region because we’ve looked at this too narrowly," he said. Flynn testified that Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Egypt "are already talking to the Russians and the Chinese about developing nuclear capabilities in their countries."

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