Iran has reportedly declared it has property rights in Antarctica, claiming it as its own with plans to build a military base at the South Pole. The claim challenges the Global Antarctic Treaty, which was signed in Washington in 1959 by 12 countries with scientists conducting research in the region the year prior The treaty went into effective in 1961 and now has 56 signatories.The treaty designates Antarctica to be used for “peaceful purposes only,” to have “freedom of scientific investigation and cooperation toward that end,” and that all scientific findings “shall be exchanged and made freely available,” according to the Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty website. Some countries have (sometimes overlapping) territorial claims, such as Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the UK and other countries do not assert claims to the land. The US and Russia have a “basis of claim”. ."We have property rights in the South Pole,” Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani said in a public broadcast, translated by Middle East Media in Washington, DC. “We plan to raise our flag there and carry out military and scientific work.”The broadcast, made in late September 2023, has garnered renewed attention in the wake of the Iranian-backed militias that murdered three US soldiers on Jordan soil in January, per Fox News. Compounding the situation, President Joe Biden’s administration has received public blowback for the fear that Iran could use the billions in Iranian sanctions unfrozen by the US State Department just prior to the Hamas terror attack on Israel — which Fox News reported on September 10 was backed by Iran. Former President Donald Trump had sanctioned Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi for the massacres of Iranian dissidents. The State Department denied the recent release of $6 billion in Iranian funds, which are stashed in Qatar, could be used by Iran to set up a military base in Antarctica.“No. Iran’s funds held in Qatar may not be used for any activities in Antarctica," a State Department spokesman told the publication. “Those funds can only be used to purchase humanitarian goods, meaning food, medicine, medical devices and agricultural products."The restrictions on the $6 billion cashflow did not please Raisi, who pushed back against the Biden administration’s stipulations. Iran will use the money “wherever we need it,” he said. .Senior Jerusalem Post military and intelligence analyst Yonah Jeremy Bob warned, “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,” said Bob, per Fox News. "Every time Tehran expands its tentacles into a new area to disrupt the rules-based order promoted by the West, the US and its allies are given an additional opportunity to take the nuclear threat more seriously," said Bob."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 another track.” In December, Iran announced it was adding "smart" cruise missiles to its navy arsenal, which retired commander of US Naval Intelligence Jennifer Dyer said, “is an arcane topic.”“Little lies between Iran’s coast outside the Persian Gulf and the eastern hemisphere side of Antarctica,” said Dyer.“In theory, Iran could claim an interest in Antarctica similar to India’s, Australia’s, New Zealand’s or Chile’s (or those of the UK and France, for that matter) with their island outposts in the southern hemisphere,” Dyer continued. "I can say that raising the flag at the South Pole doesn’t carry any implications in international law. The Antarctic Treaty has a specific provision that no action by any nation after 1961 can be the basis of a territorial claim on the continent.""Iran isn’t a signatory to the treaty and might try to do frisky things in Antarctica," Dyer noted. "Those things wouldn’t be recognized by other nations, at least as matters stand now. The US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, India, China and Russia are all signatories to the treaty, as are Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Australia and New Zealand, the ‘jumping off’ nations closest to the continent."
