IRAN – REGIONAL POWER AND INSECURITY FACTOR
IRAN – REGIONAL POWER AND INSECURITY FACTOR

Summary/Abstract: The Security Council imposed additional sanctions on the country, expanding an arms embargo and tightening restrictions on financial and shipping enterprises related to “proliferation-sensitive activities” because of its deep concern about Iran’s lack of compliance with its previous resolutions on ensuring the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme.In spite of international sanctions, Russian Energy Minister, Sergei Shmatko, and Iran’s Oil Minister, Masoud Mirkazemi, announced interesting plans for bilateral cooperation.. Shmatko and Mirkazemi signed a road-map agreement on joint oil and gas projects with a 30-year time-frame, at their Moscow meeting.It is necessary to examine the thinking of the current political leaders in the country if we want to understand Iran’s current threat perception. Iran’s missile program cannot be viewed separately from its military nuclear ambitions. Both are expressions of Iranian ambition to be a regional power. The current Iranian leadership is using strategies like expansion of the nuclear and missile programs, empowerment of the Shiite population both in the region and globally and opportunistic use of oil as a weapon in order to achieve the status of a regional power.

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