While much of Washington was buried in a blizzard of domestic political news, the Trump administration took another important step in its “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran by imposing tough new sanctions on the rogue state’s banking sector.
The Iranian economy has been reeling in the years since President Trump removed the lifeline given to it by President Barack Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal. A combination of reimposed sanctions, the ravages of the coronavirus, and depressed oil prices have knocked several economic props out from under the terrorist regime.
While much of Iran’s financial sector, from the central bank down, has been subject to sanctions by previous Trump actions, the administration is now adding another 18 Iranian banks to the list of targets. Doing so will further limit foreign currency flows, making it more difficult for Iran to trade. The goal is to throttle the already weak economy.
In announcing the decision, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, “Our sanctions programs will continue until Iran stops its support of terrorist activities and ends its nuclear programs.”
Some of the usual critics claim that tightened sanctions could stop humanitarian aid from getting through, but Treasury has tried to ensure this is not so. Iran has exploited humanitarian aid exceptions in the past to advance its malign activities, so this will have to be closely monitored, with more measures taken if it is necessary to prevent abuse.
Tough sanctions are a reminder of the stark differences between America’s approach to Iran under Trump and the policies we can expect should Joe Biden win the election next month. The challenger has promised he’d work to resurrect Obama’s awful deal. This would be difficult, for Iran has already moved on. But the fact that Biden would make the attempt is a reason to vote against him.
Were he able to revive the deal, it would be catastrophic. It flooded Iran with hundreds of billions of dollars worth of sanctions relief while enabling the militant theocratic regime to become a more potent conventional threat in the region. It also allowed the mullahs to keep up their ballistic missiles program. All the while, the deal contained a sunset provision that automatically began to unwind restrictions on nuclear activities after a decade. In other words, the agreement was that Iran could become richer and more powerful in the short-run while still hanging on to its long-term nuclear ambitions.
Trump realized that this was a bad deal for the United States and allies in the region — for everyone, in fact, other than the thugs who run Iran. The confidence Trump engendered among Iran’s neighbors by being tough on Tehran was important to sealing historic peace agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.
With Iran on its heels and peace spreading in the Middle East, now is the time for America to press its advantages and ratchet up the pressure against its declared enemy.
