Iran's Missile Program and the United States' Security Approach to it

The most important concern of any political unit during the time of anarchy is its safety and survival. The governments, as the main actors of the international system are always trying to increase their capabilities to establish security. Iran's missile program, as a reaction to security threats from the beginning (1980s and during the Iran-Iraq war) have always had a defensive and deterrent nature, and both political and defensive authorities of this country have repeatedly emphasize on this position. However, this program faced America's continuous oppositions from the beginning and is now facing much more serious reactions from this country. Given the range of Iranian missiles, they can't possibly be a threat for the US soil, and given Iran's missile arsenal, the program can't posit any threat to the Zionist Regime as a close ally to the US. Therefore, what is the main reason for America's incessant oppositions to this program?

The present article is of the opinion that the US considers Iran's missile program a continuation of its nuclear program which has an important role in changing the power balance in the region at Iran's gain and US strategic ally, Israel's loss. Since the US national security strategy about the security in the Middle East depends on 'maintaining Israel's strategic superiority', any change in this balance is intolerable for the United States that is expected to promptly react. Thus, the main hypothesis is that maintaining Israel's strategic superiority in the framework of regional power balance is the principal reason of America's opposition to Iran's missile program. The following report attempts at analyzing the so-called hypothesis by examining America's positions in the history.

Key words: the Zionist Regime, the United States of America, strategic superiority, missile, Iran, power balance

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