“We have property rights in the South Pole. We have plan to raise our flag there and carry out military and scientific work,” says Iran Navy commander, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, back in September 2023.
With the death of three US soldiers in Jordan last month at the hands of Iranian-backed militias, Iran’s naval saber-rattling is gaining more attention.
“No. Iran’s funds held in Qatar may not be used for any activities in Antarctica, Those funds can only be used to purchase humanitarian goods, meaning food, medicine, medical devices and agricultural products.” This was the answer to a question thrown to a U.S States department spokesperson.
The president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, who was penalized by the previous administration for his involvement in the two murders of Iranian dissidents and demonstrators, disagreed with the limitations imposed by the Biden administration on the $6 billion donation. Raisi mocked the Biden administration by announcing that his administration would put the enormous financial infusion “wherever we need it.”
Author of “Target Tehran” said, “Iran’s future plans to try to expand its military presence and influence into the Antarctic would not only violate multilateral conventions on the issue, but continues the regime’s trend of aggression across the globe, Whether through terrorism on basically every continent or its rampant piracy in the maritime arena, the Islamic Republic continues to show why it is a danger to world stability and why Israel and the Mossad’s role in holding it back from nuclear weapons remains critical.”
He continued, “Every time Tehran expands its tentacles into a new area to disrupt the rules-based order promoted by the West, the U.S. and its allies are given an additional opportunity to take the nuclear threat more seriously. Antarctica might seem a distant threat, but if the West acts as meekly as it did when Iran recently kicked out nuclear weapons inspectors, the Islamic Republic will only become further emboldened on other track.”
Jennifer Dyer, a retired commander of U.S. Naval Intelligence made comment that, “It’s an arcane topic, but little lies between Iran’s coast outside the Persian Gulf and the eastern hemisphere side of Antarctica. I can say that raising the flag at the South Pole doesn’t carry any implications in international law. The Antarctic Treaty (which became effective in 1961) has a specific provision that no action by any nation after 1961 can be the basis of a territorial claim on the continent.
Dyer noted that “Iran isn’t a signatory to the treaty and might try to do frisky things in Antarctica,”
