Iran is no peace partner and no ally to the West
Everyone today would love to see a deal with Iran, but let’s face reality folks. Iran is no peace partner and no ally to the West and will never be as long as the mullahs are in power.
It is a fact that no matter how much the Iranian propagandists try to sell Iran as a country with a very vibrant society, eager to embrace the West, Iran’s record of press freedom and human rights is dismal and its sponsoring of terrorists the world over – starting with Hezbollah – is second to none.
Just take a close look at Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei when delivering speeches in front of hyped-up citizens pumping their fists in the air and chanting “death to America.” and see for yourself. Or take a closer look at other Iranian leaders boasting about how Tehran “controls four Arab capitals …or go and listen to the Iranian top protégé Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, continuing to launch vitriol against Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other sovereign nations. Complete lunatics on the loose.
And while Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif never ceases to stress that his country opposes intervention in the domestic affairs of other nations, Iranian officials praise the exportation of the Iranian model of forming paramilitary groups. Even in countries with governments allied to Tehran like Iraq and Syria, Iran has created “popular militias” that report to Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). If this is not interfering in the affairs of other countries, what is?
The image of Iran that Zarif projects is clearly deceptive. Yet in his desperation to seal a deal with Iran at any price and to boost his legacy, President Barack Obama has bought into Zarif’s Iran, often describing it as a nation with a long history and a proud culture worthy of becoming America’s best ally in the region.
That Iran is a great nation with a long and rich history is indisputable. That the Iranians have lived with their neighbors, Arabs, Turks and others, for millennia and enjoyed friendly relations is also a fact.
But it’s also a fact is that in its modern history, Iran has been ruled with an iron fist by a bunch of thugs, killers and lunatics who bully neighboring countries, all in the name of Islam.
Coming to the core of the issue: The lifting of Iranian sanctions.
The sanctions on Iran are one of the few things that Congress and the American public are relatively united on. Making them into law, and preventing the President from removing them is best for the country’s safety .
For years, there have been voices telling us that economic sanctions would not lead to positive change in Iran. Sanctions, the mantra went, would only empower the Iranian regime and Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), by stoking nationalism and leading the Iranian people to revile the West and coalesce in support of their current leadership.
Yet Iran’s most recent presidential election has proved that argument to be wrong. The people of Iran did not show increased support for the regime, in fact they did the most they could under difficult circumstances to make change.
Amazingly, the same individuals who wrongly predicted that sanctions would empower the regime are still at it, arguing that it is now time to scale them back, what with a “moderate” president now taking power. Such thinking is not just illogical, but quite dangerous at this historically perilous time. The key objective for any foreign policy maker right now, given the high stakes, has to be stopping Iran’s nuclear program. And it is only a strengthening of sanctions, not a lifting of them, that will force the regime’s hand.
President Reagan bankrupted the Soviet Union without even shooting a bullet by choking them to death. Same strategy should be applied to Iran. As per Sun Tzu’s the “Art of War” the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Economic warfare or stringent sanctions is the optimal way out.
Another key effect of sanctions has been the wrench it has thrown into the regime’s usual business strategies. Significantly, hundreds of international corporations have fled Iran in recent years due to sanctions and pressure, and dozens of countries have declared themselves off-limits to business involving Iran or its sinking currency.
This is absolutely not the time for the international community to back off. The regime is in a corner and now has only two choices: cease its military nuclear program, or face more isolation and economic disaster that could potentially lead to social unrest and even a fundamental political change in the country. Lessening sanctions now would undesirably change that dynamic.
Bottom Line:
The international community and U.S. government must effectively enforce the current sanctions, and increase the pressure by introducing more. No one wants to give billions of dollars to an oppressive government that ranks at the bottom of all freedom indexes and brutally crushes popular uprisings.
Break Iran and you will break all of the Syria- Hezbollah axis that goes with it too.
If Tehran really wants sanction relief, it should cut its revolutionary crap and behave like decent governments do. If it doesn’t, it should be left out in the cold. Period.
If dealing with Tehran has been hard so far, just imagine how hard handling a nuclear Iran would be.
So stop both the media and President Obama trying to spin Iran as a natural ally to the West and a good peace partner because they aren’t and will never be as long as the religious zealot Islamists are in power.
