Military Equipment Sellers to Iran Over the Past Seven Decades

Recently, the U.S. International Public Radio (PRI), a non-profit organization, posed the question on its website: "Will Iran regain its military power after the lifting of international sanctions?" This topic has become one of the key discussions at the international level following the nuclear agreement with Iran. To answer this question, examining the history of Iran's arms imports and the factors surrounding it can be one of the first steps. According to the database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which contains information about global conventional arms trade since 1950, the United States was the largest exporter of military equipment to Iran from this year until the 1979 revolution. The mentioned radio website reports that U.S. arms exports to Iran intensified after 1953, following the coup led by U.S. and British intelligence agencies against the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh. Based on a report by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1976, Iran was the largest buyer of U.S. weapons at that time, with arms exports to Iran increasing sevenfold from $524 million to $3.91 billion between 1972 and 1974. SIPRI's database shows that U.S. arms exports to Iran peaked in 1977, reaching $3.98 billion, while the Soviet Union's exports were $740 million, Britain's $79 million, and other countries' $289 million. The report also clarified that Richard Nixon, the then U.S. President, and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, allowed Iran to purchase "any weapons it wanted except for nuclear weapons" for the first time in 1972. Consequently, the Shah purchased some of the most advanced weapons of the time from the U.S. with the revenue generated from oil sales, and the Iranian military benefited from training and technical assistance from American personnel. The report explains the fundamental reasons for the sale of military equipment to Iran: "Due to its geographical importance and oil resources, Iran is an extremely important country for the U.S. and its allies and will continue to be so. On the other hand, Iran places great importance on its relations with the U.S., particularly regarding the common belief in Iran that if Iran is threatened, the U.S. will defend it." Under the extensive support of the U.S., Iran became the most significant military power in the Middle East and paved the way for acquiring nuclear weapons. After the 1979 revolution, U.S. arms exports to Iran were halted, and with the onset of the U.S. embassy hostage crisis in Tehran on November 4, 1979, all orders and arms contracts were canceled. After the revolution, China and the Soviet Union entered the field and became the largest suppliers of the Islamic Republic's military needs from the 1980s onwards. According to SIPRI data, U.S. military equipment exports to Iran were minimal over the 35 years following the revolution, from 1980 to 2015. Between 1984 and 1986, amidst the Iran-Iraq War, the U.S. secretly sold $50 million worth of weapons and military parts to Iran, an act deemed illegal in the U.S. due to arms sanctions against Iran, aimed at assisting Israel. In this incident, the U.S. sought to secure the release of American hostages in Lebanon through this arms deal. The revenue generated from this sale was secretly given to Nicaraguan rebels to continue their fight against the leftist government of that country. This incident later became known as the Iran-Contra affair, which is also associated with the McFarlane affair (the National Security Advisor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan) and the Iran-gate scandal. According to SIPRI statistics, the most significant arms exporters to Iran between 1950 and 2015 and their export values (according to SIPRI's trend indicator value) were: the U.S. $24.943 billion; the Soviet Union and Russia $6.715 billion; China $4.259 billion; Britain $3.744 billion; North Korea $1.527 billion; Italy $1.344 billion; and other countries $3.601 billion. After the 1979 revolution and the imposition of U.S. arms sanctions against Iran, the Islamic Republic turned to Russia and China to meet its needs, and Russian exports to Iran significantly increased in the 1990s after the Iran-Iraq War. The Iran-Iraq War and U.S. sanctions compelled the Islamic Republic to develop Iran's military industries and meet its defense needs by producing new weapons or evolving and optimizing some foreign weapons, while also exporting arms to some countries and non-state groups, including Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Hezbollah, and Hamas. SIPRI data shows that in the past decade, Syria was the most significant importer of Iranian weapons. The value of arms exported to Syria in 2006, 2008, and 2010 was $54 million, $40 million, and $45 million, respectively. In 2011, the value of these exports peaked at $86 million. The value of arms exported to Syria in 2014 was estimated at $10 million. According to SIPRI statistics and charts, Russian arms exports to Iran sharply declined with the intensification of international and UN sanctions, especially after 2007, the year Iran disregarded the Security Council's demand to halt uranium enrichment. In contrast, China continued its arms exports to Iran to some extent despite the aforementioned sanctions. In fact, both China and Russia, given their close economic relations with Iran, have always tried to mitigate the severity of sanctions in the Security Council discussions regarding the formation and approval of sanctions. The initial Security Council sanctions prohibited the transfer of technology applicable to Iran's nuclear industries, and in 2010, the scope of these sanctions was extended to the sale of conventional weapons to Iran. Nevertheless, overall, China and Russia reduced their arms exports to Iran between 2008 and 2015, but the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 countries (JCPOA) will allow Russia and China to strengthen their military relations with Iran and consequently increase the volume of arms exports to the Islamic Republic. In April 2015, Russia lifted its sanctions against Iran in connection with the S-300 missile defense system and insisted on implementing the $800 million contract from 2007 regarding the system, and last month, in April 2016, three months after the JCPOA, it delivered parts of it to Iran.