Top Iranian officials just threatened to inflict "harm and pain" on the United States, vowing to "use any means" to "resist any pressure and threat" over its nuclear program. It's not just rhetoric. Iran is making preparations to deliver on both promises by expanding its alliance with its evil twin, Syria.
With each passing day, Syria's Baathists and Iran's radicals
inch further into each other's embrace, limiting our policy options
- and making both less susceptible to international pressure.
The rising Damascus-Tehran axis means more trouble for the
U.S./Israel in the Middle East, more Iranian/Syrian support for
terrorism and insurgency across the region - and, worst of all, the
specter of nuclear cooperation between the two.
Strategic ties date back to the early 1980s, when Syria lined up
with Iran against Iraq (i.e., Iran-Iraq war) and the United States
and Israel (i.e., Lebanon). Relations have grown increasingly
chummy more recently - especially since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became
Iran's president last September.
Visiting Damascus in mid-January, Ahmadinejad emphasized improving
relations - noting that he and Syrian President Bashar al Assad had
adopted identical positions on all international issues.
On that same trip, Ahamdinejad also paid a return visit on the
terrorist "tools" who had paid homage to him in December in Tehran,
including Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian
rejectionist groups, promising them they could count on Iran's full
support.
Tehran-Damascus shuttle diplomacy is more frequent, too. Iranian
Vice President Parviz Davoudi visited Syria just a couple of weeks
ago for a meeting of the Joint Syrian-Iranian Higher Committee -
the regimes' consultation/coordination organ.
Davoudi called for both sides to exchange views regularly,
characterizing current relations as "strategic." After meeting with
Davoudi, Assad crowed that bilateral ties were both broad and
promising - and called for "all-out relations."
The Iranian and Syrian economies are increasingly integrated, too
- boosting both powers' ability to buck any new punitive sanctions.
They recently inked a series of trade/financial accords, including
developing a joint banking system and building an Iranian oil/gas
pipeline across Iraq to Syria.
On the security side, Iran and Syria concluded a mutual defense
treaty in 2004, meaning they will protect each other if attacked.
Reaffirming the pact last February, Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad
Naji al Otari noted, "Syria and Iran face several challenges, and
it is necessary to build a common front."
Mohammed Reza Aref, then Iran's vice president, responded, "We are
ready to help Syria on all grounds to confront threats,"
undoubtedly referring to the pressure on Damascus following the
killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
As the Iranian nuclear crisis came to a rolling boil earlier this
year, Iran and Syria further cemented their security relationship
with more meetings, undoubtedly discussing defense strategy should
the United States take military action against either or
both.
Both countries actively support terrorist/insurgent groups in
Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, too.
Their growing intimacy will improve their sponsorship's
efficiency/effectiveness, especially after Hamas' recent electoral
victory.
But the most dreaded strategic aspect of their partnership is the
potential for nuclear cooperation. Last September, Ahmadinejad
announced a willingness to share "peaceful" nuclear technology with
other "Islamic" states. (Damascus is the most likely recipient of
Tehran's nuclear largesse.) There is reason to be concerned. While
Syria only has a small nuclear R&D program, based on a
Chinese-supplied 30-kilowatt reactor, operating under International
Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, that isn't the whole story.
The State Department says that Syria has also obtained some
dual-use nuclear technologies - some with IAEA assistance - that
could be used in a weapons program. Although details are murky,
Russia may have agreed to assist the Syrian nuke program,
too.
And don't forget about A.Q. Khan, the CEO of Pakistan's nuclear
Walmart, who probably contacted Damascus during his hey-day in the
1990s. Fortunately, there is no evidence - to date - that Syria
ever became a Khan client.
The possibility of Iran or Syria becoming nuclear states - or of,
one coming under the other's nuclear umbrella - is a nightmare for
American interests, hamstringing U.S. policy options for dealing
with either problem.
The burgeoning Syrian-Iranian consortium is sowing an arc of evil
and instability across the Middle East, allowing both regimes to
resist international pressure on terrorism in Iraq and across the
region, as well as on weapons of mass destruction.
Vigorously opposing this alliance of evil whenever - and wherever
- it raises its dark, tyrannical head, is the right and necessary
thing to do.
Peter
Brookes is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow. His
book, "A Devil's Triangle: Terrorism, WMD and Rogue States," is
just out.
First appeared in the New York Post