This War Has Been Right

The Islamic Republic of Iran has relentlessly pursued the development of nuclear capabilities with the aim of achieving hegemonic dominance over  both the land and the skies.

In June of 2025, The International Atomic Energy Administration (IAEA)stated that the Islamic Republic possessed 1,000 lbs. of highly enriched uranium at the 60 per cent level. According to the IAEA, the necessary enrichment of up to 90 per cent was within  very easy reach.

After relentless attacks from both the United States and Israel. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchis says “Everything is under the rubbles.”  Both the US and Israel believe Iran may be able to transfer the enriched uranium, which, according to the nuclear physicist Avner Vilan, is easily removable, and can be stored in canisters. Meanwhile the IAEA has been barred from inspections in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan since before the war of June 12, 2025.

The regime’s ambitions are not limited to its borders; it seeks to control the skies and expand its influence far beyond the region. Central to these efforts is a highly sophisticated ballistic missile program capable of reaching strategic locations such as Diego Garcia—an island in the Indian Ocean, utilized as a military base by both the United States and Britain, and situated approximately 2,500 miles from Iran.

Iran’s reach is further extended through a network of terror proxies on the ground that ignite instability across the region and beyond. These proxies include the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, Syria, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Moreover, Iran has established clandestine networks in the West, including some operating covertly in the tri-border area where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) plays a pivotal role in Iran’s strategy. The IRGC is known for its involvement in criminal, terrorist, and cyber operations. This organization has demonstrated its capability to project power far from Iran’s borders, including the operation of a drone attack targeting the continental United States from Latin America. They have long worked with paramilitaries to create an extension of their brutal Basij Force, and with Venezuelan civilian, criminal networks, known as “colectivos.” There have long been “ghost flights”, running counterfeited money and drug trafficking between Iran and Venezuela.

The IRGC possesses a messianic zeal, and specifically its overseas branch, the Quds Force, which has built an active and always evolving presence in Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua, (which are considered their fundamental hub), and along the tri-border area Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. It has long been known as an interwoven theological, financial, security, industrial and regional network.

Shia Islam advocates for strict fundamentalism. “Twelvers” believe that there are twelve imams, appointed by Muhammad, who have been appointed as the spiritual and political successors to him, and who have a unique knowledge of the Qur’an, and are able to preserve and educate others in Islamic law.

They have spoon fed this all-embracing theocracy down the throats of their young people. Those who have rebelled have been shot, strangled, suffocated or hung on the public square. Iran just executed three young people, including Saleh Mohammadi, a 19 year old champion wrestler, who was publicly tortured to confess to the sin of “waging war against God.” They are the world’s second highest executor, after China, with as many executions as 9 hangings a day.

On February of 2019, the IRGC, along with its specialized Al Quds Force was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In February of 2026, the European Union added the IRGC on its designated list of terrorist organizations.

The Islamic Republic of Iran wants nothing short of worldwide hegemony. This war is both necessary and the right thing to do, to be able to preserve Western civilization and all of our inherent freedoms from this toxic, theocratic stranglehold.

Sarah N. Stern is the founder and president of EMET, a think tank and policy institute specializing in the Middle East in Washington, DC.