Is America’s grip on the middle East diminishing?

Balance of power across middle east: Iran proxy warfare and American economic sanctions

By Shahdad Baloch

The balance of power across the Middle East for decades is favoring Iran more than America and the West. The USA and its allies have been meddling predominantly on two major issues, Human Rights and countering Iran with economic sanctions. on the contrary, Iran has developed the vision of challenging the local and neighboring countries and their governments. American policy in the Middle East seems a failure, Washington approach towards Iran is solely based on maligning already maligned Iran.

US mishandling of Iran turned it into a gigantic power across Middle East where IRGC and its Quds force has been training, recruiting and supporting militants for political movement based on Iran’s ideology. American supremacy and strength across the Middle East are defined through its political and strategic grip in countries like Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Since 1984 US is confronting Iran backed proxies through economic sanctions but still, America has not gained enough. These sanctions paved a pathway for Iran to develop strategic power across the Middle East because of the US frequent miscalculations, mere economic sanctions may yield result in western countries but for countries like Iran and Pakistan, such attempts of America are not big deals.

They find easement through contemporary policies of the USA. The economic sanctions are now trapping American strategic depth across the Middle East and South Asia. The rivals of America want it to engage itself with economic sanctions, Iran and Pakistan see these economic sanctions as a point of their strategic edge. They want America to engage itself in an obsolete policy of economic sanctions that is the reason after every economic sanction by America Pakistan and Iran raise hype just to deliver a message to the American administration that such sanctions are damaging their economy and reputation. But in reality, amid the hue and cry of economic sanctions countries like Iran and Pakistan are strengthening their proxies to constraint American’s hold in the Middle East and South Asia. 

        In the twenty-first century when anyone reads the map of the Middle East things are changed and Iran has emerged as a big rival of America in Middle Eastern countries. Decades before America was in a position to trap Iran from its military strength in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, but today Iranian backed proxies are present in the respective regions with enormous strength. The failed and outdated strategy of America and the West has taken Iran to such a position that now Iran is not a piece of cake for America. For the sake of supporting argument lets boil down and study each of the Middle Eastern regions:

How is Iran countering American in the Middle East?

Surreptitiously Iran has bifurcated American strength in the Middle East by raising giant proxies for those Middle Eastern states. Let’s take a glimpse of the Iranian hold in that region.

                      How Iran turned the table of Iraq was in its favour?

Before the attack on Iraq during Saddam’s rule, there was Iraq based  Badr organisation in Iran. In 2003 when Saddam Hussain was ousted Iran backed Badr organisation returned to Iraq armed with Iran’s political ideology and joined the Iraqi military and police force. In a nutshell, despite its militant recognition on a global level, Badr had a political wing that won seats in the Iraqi parliament. This led to Iranian supremacy in Iraq both on a military and political level. Conclusively Iran succeeded in bringing its hold in Iraq on parallel footings against America.

likewise, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada founded in 2013 by Iran came before America as another upset. Its mission was to support the Assad regime. It hoodwinked the US in 2014 by fighting against ISIS and bared itself from sanctions. But American treasury department sanctioned a few of its leaders. Conclusively, Iran’s entrance into Iraq gave Iran a geostrategic edge but America just put sanctions on few leaders which didn’t yield anything for America. Now in Iraq, Iran has formulated a big militia against America and saved itself from any sort of aggression from the West, America and Israel from US military bases in Iraq. 

          The Houthis of Yemen and Ansar Allah: Iran backed militants

Yemen is now a checkpoint for Saudi Arabia and America. It seems as both Saudi Arabia and the US are in back foot position on the Yemen issue. Iran backed proxies are frequently targeting Saudi Arabia and America is merely defusing heavy artilleries. Ansar Allah fought the Yemeni government. This IRGC backed militia has captured Sanaa in 2014, ousted president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government. To counter Iran’s influence Saudi Arabia and America formulated a coalition and selected Pakistan’s ex-army chief Raheel Sharif as its head which did nothing against Iran’s proxies.

On contrary, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah expanded training and increased shipments and arms to Iran backed proxies in Yemen. Today Yemen is under the control of Iran and challenging US presence in the region. it seems as Iran has dragged America on a deterrent position on Yemen, just to ensure the safety of Saudi Arabia nothing else more. Since 2012 despite American sanctions, Iran spent millions of dollars to support the Houthis. 

This reflects the truth that no economic sanctions barred Iran from supporting its proxies Iran benefitted from the US obsolete policy of mere sanctions. 

  Syrian Issue: Pakistan and Iran’s joint policy to counter America

Zainabiyoun Brigade a mercenary group is a formulation of both Iran and Pakistan which consists of mostly Pakistani Shiite militia. It was established in 2014 by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and trained by Quds Force. It recruited Pakistanis to support the Assad regime in Syria against America. Despite economic sanctions, studies by the Wilson Institute of America show Iran has extended at least 4.6 billion dollars in credit to the Assad regime. The studies further reveal that since 2012 amid economic sanctions Iran spent over 16 billion dollars, propping up Assad’s regime and supporting its other partners and proxies in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. 

 On the contrary, America has just extended economic sanctions and raised the Human Rights issue. Which did not yield anything for the affected masses but created a big gap for Iran to further strengthen its position in respective regions. 

Lebanon, Bahrain, Palestine and Saudi Arabia

According to a study by the Wilson Institute, Iran provides 700 million to Lebanese Hezbollah every year. Hezbollah has been involved in a bombing against the US, it has 130000 rockets, missiles as per the research of centre of strategic and international studies and a powerful position in the Lebanese government and on its economy. Iran has no view of Shiite and Sunni Muslims. The hype of Shiite and Sunni is intentionally created by both Iran and Pakistan.

 Iran supports to Sunni Muslim of Palestinian Hamas and supporting Hamas and other Jihadists with 100 million dollars a year. This Shiite and Sunni rift is a unanimous approach of Iran and Pakistan to hoodwink Saudi Arabia so that amid economic sanctions Pakistan can get billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia just to pretend as an Ally of Saudi Arabia. The fact is that Pakistan through the Baloch sea is supporting Iran based proxies from a narrow strip of the Persian Gulf. Modern weapons and artilleries are being dispatched to Iranian backed proxies by Pakistan regularly that is the reason Iran with the help of Pakistan is strengthening militants in Afghanistan against the USA. 

      Fatemiyon Division: Iran backed militia in Afghanistan 

This group was also formulated by Iran in 1980 but it mostly consists of Afghan Shia militants, the headquarter of which is based on Mashad Iran. It went dormant in 1990, was then revised by IRGC in 2012, tasked to support the Assad regime in Syria. According to Wilson institute research, some 50000 Afghans and suspected Pakistani army officials were deployed in Syria. Also, recently the world has witnessed the interference of Iran in Afghanistan.

Iranian meddling at this crucial juncture of an Afghan peace process is evident of the fact that when Pakistan witnessed American pressure Iran started interference through its proxies in Afghanistan. This means Pakistan and Iran has a unanimous policy of sabotaging the Afghan peace process and plundering the American administration from different tactics.

Hezbollah, Shiite and Sunni militias of Iran has no religious motives but such are camps of Iran against the West and America. The failure of American economic sanctions on lighter notes is witnessed from the series of presidential and Congress resolutions which are being passed and implemented for decades. Under executive order 13224, President Bush and then Trump designated foreign individuals and organizations of Iran as terrorists.

To create public awareness in the region America did a lot under executive orders 12947,13224,13438,13752 and 13611 besides US Congress passed two laws under section 219 and act titled “the Hezbollah international prevention act” but they all proved as fruitless before devil designs of Iran. Iran emerged in Bahrain with its proxies Saraya Al Ashtar and Saraya Al-Mukhtar and within Saudi Arabia, Iran formulated Hezbollah Al Hejaz whose motives are overthrowing the Saudi kingdom by replacing it with the Iranian model and infiltrating pro-Iran people in the government. 

      Despite economic sanctions, Iran built its power hub in the Middle Eastern region. This reveals the fact that the American policy of countering Iran is no more a threat to Iran. Iran curved out many benefits amid US economic sanctions. The question here is that what sort of policy the US opt to constraint Iran and its influence In the region.

America in its war against ISIS  achieved desired goals just because of Kurds. Similarly, America has to revise its policy in the region by supporting the Balochistan freedom movement. Decades before amid Cold War with the USSR American think tank Selig  S Harrison sketched the roadmap for the success of America which lie on a single notion of supporting the struggle of Baloch for freedom of Balochistan from the occupation of Iran and Pakistan. 

     Today the world can assess the policies of the Baloch nation through the Balochistan liberation charter that what kind of state Balochistan would be after freeing itself from Iran and Pakistan. The Balochistan liberation charter is a mix of motives of minds of Baloch living under the bifurcation of Britain’s artificial Lines. The leader of the contemporary Baloch freedom struggle Mr Hyrbyair Marri put the vision of free Balochistan before the world in form of the Balochistan Liberation Charter.  Mr Hyrbyair Marri’s struggle of bringing a single resolution in American congress jolted both Pakistan and Iran because both knew the fact that if Balochistan gets liberated then there would be no Baloch sea left for Iran and Pakistan to distort the world peace and tranquillity.

Its Baloch land whose sovereignty is being encroached by Iran and Pakistan for their vested interests. Whenever Balochistan is liberated from these monsters then there would be no proxies in the region. The fact is that Baloch iconic leader Mr Hyrbyair Marri is against proxies and he always countered the enemies notion of Baloch freedom struggle being a proxy of any country. Under his leadership today Baloch en masse thrive for the national interests of Balochistan. Again it is a big opportunity for the world that they consider the status and Baloch nation key role amid bringing peace and tranquillity in the region.

The more time the world takes to ponder on Iran and Pakistan the more they suffer, now the only cure left before the world is freedom of Balochistan. If America like Iran in future rely on formulating any proxies to counter Iran in the region then America would suffer more, because the mistake the global powers and agencies did during Cold War is enough lesson for the entire world. The powers wanted to fill the gap created during the Cold War, with proxies became a headache not only in Africa but for the entire world. It’s owing to the proxy nature that Africa is not stable where mutual rifts and bloodshed are the order of days.

Repeating the same mistake would disrupt the balance of power in the Middle East and South Asia, conclusively, every proxy would thrive for the throne. Avoiding such blunders of history global powers and America in particular needs to formulate a policy that leads to the roadmap for freedom of Balochistan from Pakistan and Iran. It is inevitable for the world peace and harmony to approach Baloch nation and endorse their freedom movement otherwise all options are used against Iran and Pakistan but the world has gained nothing and lost too much.