Sanctions and U.S. military assistance are threatening to change the balance of power in the Middle East. Just not in the way they were intended to do so:
Despite decades of sanctions, Iran has succeeded in developing its missile arsenal, which is larger than that of any other Middle Eastern country including Israel, a Pentagon study said Tuesday.
“Iran has an extensive missile development program, and the size and sophistication of its missile force continues to grow despite decades of counterproliferation efforts aimed at curbing its advancement,” the Defense Intelligence Agency said.
“Lacking a modern air force, Iran has embraced ballistic missiles as a long-range strike capability to dissuade its adversaries in the region — particularly the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia — from attacking Iran,” the report said.
Iran has “the largest missile force in the Middle East,” the report said. A US intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that the assessment included Israel.
Not unlike the German development of the U-boat and the Japanese development of the aircraft carrier due to overwhelming British and American battleship strength, the Iranian bypassing of the aircraft-based air superiority doctrine is likely to have helped it strategically in the end.
And due to its inability to purchase weapons from the US or the European countries, it now has a base of missile technology that cannot be cut off at will by those countries.