As the coronavirus causes oil prices to plunge and rips through Iran, that nation’s terrorist regime has assumed an increasingly aggressive posture toward the United States.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats are taking the occasion to escalate their harassment of U.S. Navy warships in the Persian Gulf. Their typical tactic is to approach at high speed and then veer off at the last moment, taunting sailors with the possibility of a suicide attack. It’s a tactic, thanks to previous Iranian actions such as the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beruit, Iran knows the U.S. military cannot ignore.
Also, the IRGC seized, albeit only temporarily, an international tanker in the Gulf of Oman. The group’s proxies have also launched repeated rocket attacks on U.S. military bases in Iraq, killing two people and wounding others.
Along with these provocations, Iran’s leaders, the same malicious incompetents responsible for downing a plane full of their own citizens, have stepped up their threatening language beyond the usual bluster.
This escalation demands the Trump administration’s attention. To be clear, this is not a confluence of actions borne of lower-ranking Iranian commanders. It is a deliberate choice by Tehran to advance its agenda amid the pandemic. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seeking sanctions relief as the coronavirus pandemic bites hard on his nation. The collapse in oil prices has meant that Iran’s already broken economy is near being totally devoid of foreign capital. The regime, in short, is a starving beast, cornered and dangerous. This is no time to accede to its demands.
We sympathize with the Iranian people here. Their regime lied about their downing of a Ukrainian passenger airliner in early January, then lied about the early outbreak of the virus on their soil. After failing to advise Iranians to take adequate precautions, Iran’s government continues to lie about the numbers who have died. The suffering of this ancient people has been immense at the hands of their current regime.
Yet this is not an excuse for the kind of sanctions relief that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his foreign minister Javad Zarif are now demanding. The Trump administration has been right to reject general sanctions relief. Iran’s regime has no interest in its people’s health — after all, it was shooting its own people late last year when they took to the streets to protest. Renewed access to international markets would only help the regime support its violent revolutionary apparatus. This would make America and the Iranian people worse off rather than better.
We’ve been down this road before, after all. Following President Barack Obama’s disastrous 2015 nuclear accord, the IRGC ensured that sanctions relief went to its military coffers and terrorist networks rather than to benefit Iranians.
President Trump should continue to prevent sanctions relief unless and until it agrees to abandon its nuclear program in earnest. This means an end to nuclear enrichment and its ballistic missile program, total disclosure of nuclear weapons research, and wide-ranging inspections, including snap inspections. For a bankrupt, suffering nation, it should be easy to accept these conditions and provide the Iranian people with a prosperous and better future, instead of plaguing the region with paramilitary violence.
Sadly, recent Iranian escalations show that the regime remains convinced that it can extort its way to sanctions relief. Khamenei is banking on Trump flinching in the face of a military showdown — that he’ll take the easy road and back down in order to avoid escalation.
Trump has already taken the necessary step of warning Iran against any new threats to American warships, but this alone may not be enough. Trump must further clarify that any attack will not simply be met with force, but also with further retaliation. Iran’s leaders most clearly understand power through the barrel of a gun. The U.S. must do everything possible to let Khamenei and the IRGC understand that if attacks upon Americans are far too costly.
We recognize that this is a very challenging moment for America and the world. But just because life is harder than it was two months ago, we cannot ignore those who would make it even more challenging.
