On May 9, the head of one of the many Tehran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq gave a speech accusing Israel of support for Islamic State and, moreover, threatened that once his group and its allies had vanquished their Sunni enemies, they would turn to the task of destroying the Jewish state. These threats, writes Jonathan Spyer, should not be taken as mere bluster, especially amidst the rising tensions in the Persian Gulf:
[T]he area encompassing Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon today constitutes a single arena from an Iranian operational point of view. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) [and its proxies] have freedom of action in each of these areas. . . .
Iran is making use of its Iraqi militia clients to deploy short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) in the deserts of western Iraq—with the intention that these could be launched against Israel at a time of Iran’s choosing. . . . Tehran has also established facilities for missile production in western Iraq, and is employing Iraqi citizens to carry out this work. . . .
The ability of Iran to operate a de-facto contiguous line of control across Iraq, and thence to Syria, Lebanon, and the borders with the Golan Heights, is thus not under serious doubt. It appears that Tehran has begun to station SRBMs along this route, directed at Israel, and manned by the IRGC-directed militias—an arrangement intended to provide Iran with deniability in the event of their being used. . . . In the remote deserts of western Iraq, Iran’s servants are busily at work preparing a new front against Israel.
Read more on Jonathan Spyer: https://jonathanspyer.com/2019/05/17/missiles-in-the-desert/