As the Biden administration desperately tries to prevent or limit a missile and drone attack by Iran and its proxies against Israel, it would be wise to remember that the Middle East is already awash in Iranian projectiles. Recently, an Iranian artillery rocket fired by Lebanese Hezbollah killed twelve children in northern Israel, leading to an escalation spiral where the Israelis killed Hezbollah’s number two man, with the terror group now seeking revenge.

That initial strike followed a historic first long-range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) strike by Yemen’s Houthi rebels against Tel Aviv, killing one person. The UAV was made in Iran and completed a 2,600 km flight path.

While forward-deployed long-range strike systems are an essential component of Tehran’s “ring of fire” strategy against Israel, that is not the only arms proliferation problem the administration must tackle. The Islamic Republic is capitalizing on a more permissive international environment to build on its track record of arms proliferation to non-state actors to become an arms salesman to states.

One way Iran can elicit state interest is by highlighting the role its low-cost systems, like drones, have played on the battlefield. The infamous Shahed-136 UAV—also called the Geran-2—has been instrumental in Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, with Moscow firing a reported 4,600 drones in the first two years of the conflict. The same drone also featured in Iran’s April 13 attack against Israel.

Far beyond Ukraine and Israel, Iranian drones have been seen in at least two other continents, demonstrating the radius of........

© The National Interest