Iran’s Political and Security Strategy in the Middle East Following the United States’ Withdrawal from the JCPOA

Document Type : Original Independent Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Political Science Department, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ilam, Iran.

Abstract

The Middle East is one of the world’s most vital, strategic, and geopolitical regions. With the victory of the Islamic revolution in Iran, the United States and Iran have pursued contradictory policies towards each other, as the two countries are considered to be rivals. Even the United States, pursuing this enmity, withdrew from the JCPOA agreement, which could eventually quell the enmity; based on this, the article’s primary question is what strategies the Islamic Republic of Iran has adopted to guarantee its security and national interests in the Middle East following the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA? This descriptive-analytical study aims to examine the methods of confrontation adopted by Iran following the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA. Overall, the article demonstrates that Iran, in response to the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA and its tension-inducing measures, has its own strategies, which include a gradual reduction of its JCPOA obligations, more support for Shia proxies (including Ansarullah, Hashd al-Shaabi, Hezbollah, …), a stronger military presence in the region, military measures against regional rivals (such as Saudi Arabia and Israel), and reinforcing its East- oriented policy in political and security fields in the Middle East in order to ensure security and national interests.

Highlights

Introduction

The Middle East is one of the world’s most vital and strategic regions. Not only does this region have a history of thousands of years of civilization, but it is also the point where Asia, Europe, and Africa converge. All colonial powers had interests in the Middle East, from the Portuguese to the British. With the discovery of oil in this region at the end of the 19th century, its significance doubled, as Britain, the world’s leading power at the turn of the 20th century, used oil as the primary energy source for its naval ships. With the decline of Britain following the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union entered this region. In addition to oil resources, they sought influence throughout the Middle East. However, the United States prevailed over the Soviet Union and employed strategies to gain more allies in the Middle East.  After the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, the United States became the major power that influenced the Middle East, and it has since tried to maintain this influence to the extent that each president of the United States has had foreign policy strategies designed specifically to solve the problems of the Middle East.

In fact, the United States has also encountered obstacles in the Middle East, preventing it from imposing its hegemony in this region. 1979’s Islamic Revolution in Iran poses the most significant of these problems. With the victory of the revolution, the United States initiated its hostility toward Iran, including early sanctions, support for Iraq in the imposed war, the policy of bilateral containment, sanctions over the nuclear program, and international cooperation to increase sanctions. The international nuclear sanctions, which intensified in 2008, finally brought the Rouhani administration in Iran, the Obama administration, and the other five major powers of the world to the negotiating table, leading to the signing of the JCPOA agreement (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which imposed a number of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities, including a time limit. In exchange for an executive guarantee based on a resolution of the UN Security Council that was unanimously approved, Iran agreed that its nuclear program could be monitored in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and some of these powers.

 However, Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA in early 2018, shortly after he took office in 2017, on the grounds that the agreement did not meet the interests and national security of the United States and should be replaced by a better agreement. The article attempts to answer the following question regarding the US withdrawal: What political and security strategies has Iran implemented to maintain its security and national interests in the Middle East? In order to answer the question, it was assumed that, following the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA, Iran had adopted defensive and confrontational strategies in the political and security fields in the Middle East in order to counterbalance and stop the threats to its security and national interests. The independent variable of the research is the withdrawal of the United States from the JCPOA, while its dependent variable is Iran’s political and security strategy in the Middle East.

 

Methodology

This descriptive-analytical study aims to examine how Iran has confronted the United States since its withdrawal from the JCPOA.

 

Results and Discussion

Iran announced, following the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA, that if Europe cannot guarantee the necessary benefits of the JCPOA, it will not adhere to the JCPOA and will not carry out its obligations. In addition to withdrawing from the JCPOA, another strategy of the United States under President Trump was to impose severe sanctions on Iran before withdrawing. Moreover, after the withdrawal, the United States declared the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization and sent the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to the region to bolster its military might in the Middle East, an unprecedented move in the history of the world. Iran, on the other hand, has attempted to circumvent the sanctions and declared CENTCOM (US Central Command Headquarters) a terrorist force in order to maximize its security, which means that the Iranian armed forces can confront the forces of this headquarters if they become involved in the Middle East. The United States has also exerted pressure on Iran’s allies in the Middle East, such as Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq, and Ansarullah in Yemen, as it considers these allies to be Iran’s primary spheres of influence in the region. Therefore, the United States has attempted to limit the influence of these Iranian allies by cooperating with its own allies.

On the other hand, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strategy has been to strengthen its relations with these countries and groups known as the resistance and Shia proxy groups and to provide them with all the necessary financial, advisory, technical, and military support. In this strategy, these resistance units are the arms of Iran’s influence in the Middle East, ensuring the country’s interests and security beyond its borders. Iran’s primary objective in employing these resistance groups and nations is to increase the cost of confronting the Islamic Republic of Iran for the United States, the West, and regional powers and to create a balance and deterrent against them.

 

Conclusion

It can be said that the United States’ withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the application of the policy of maximum pressure, which did not decrease until the middle of Biden’s second year in office, have increased the threats against Iran in various internal and external dimensions, to which Iran has responded by adopting an East-oriented strategy, drawing closer and closer to great powers such as Russia and China, while moving further and further away from Europe.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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International Studies Journal (ISJ)
Volume 19, Issue 3 - Serial Number 75
January 2023
Pages 169-188

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