Ex-CIA officer: U.S. may support -- but not initiate -- regime change |
While much has made of the fact that the U.S. raid on Iran's nuclear sites have crippled its program, a top Russian official has hinted that countries like Russia or North Korea might provide Iran with nuclear warheads. U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Federation's Security Council, for floating the idea.
Derek Jones is a retired Air Force fighter pilot who now serves as executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. He argues it will be difficult for Iran's allies to provide military aid to the rogue regime.
"I absolutely am in the camp that believes [those allies] are looking at how they can help Iran," Jones tells AFN. "[But] any attempts right now to try to infuse them with weapons or anything else will be easily seen because there's a limited number of places that they can move munitions in and out of without it being observed and interceded on."
China supports Iran in safeguarding its sovereignty and security and “achieving a real ceasefire,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a phone call Tuesday with his Iranian counterpart. And Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Moscow is ready to help settle the conflict between Israel and Iran but will not act as a mediator.
Jones contends that neither Russia nor China are in a position to provide any substantial assistance to the Islamic regime.
"Deep down they don't want them to have [a nuclear weapon] either," he states. "That's why I just don't think those nations are going to intercede or try to assist Iran. I think they'll do a lot of saber rattling. They'll use it as a PR opportunity. But I pray I am right: I don't believe that we'll see any active engagement by those nation groups to try to come to the aid of Iran."
There will be a price … eventually
Meanwhile, a national defense analyst says victory over the Iranian regime cannot be won just with air power. Robert Maginnis, president of Maginnis Strategies LLC, warns that the Iranians will not surrender – and that eventually, there's going to be a "price to pay."
"There's a calm before the storm at this point, as far as I'm concerned. The Iranians are kind of putting together their pieces," says the Pentagon adviser. "There's not going to be capitulation. That's not an Islamic ideology; they don't believe in that. We're infidels as far as they're concerned."
Maginnis argues there must be a regime change in Iran.
"However, in order to accomplish that, you're going to have to put people on the ground – and I don't think anybody in the United States really wants to go in with tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel into another Middle East war. And yet you cannot win this campaign, this new war, from the air alone. It's just not going to happen."
He concludes: "Don't believe anything you hear from [Iran] – but be very watchful because they will continue the shadow war."
