Iran Nukes: While all the hoopla over Deep-State spying on President Trump gets the media attention, something else important happened this week: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, not even one month on the job, unveiled a new U.S. strategy to deal with Iran.
XWhat's significant is that the new strategy is a complete reversal of the make-nice policies that prevailed under President Obama. Gone are the gentle nudges intended to cause marginal shifts in Iran's behavior; instead, the new strategy boldly aims for regime change in Iran. Whether it works or not, it is a worthwhile goal.
In a major speech that didn't get the attention it deserved, Pompeo, speaking at the Heritage Foundation, made clear the strategy followed will be very different than President Obama's 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which only focused on a temporary, 10-year halt to Iran's nuclear weapons activities — but didn't address the other things it does, including aiding terrorism around the world and destabilizing its neighbors in the Mideast.
Pompeo was admirably clear: If Iran ends its nuclear weapons program and halts its support of terrorism, the U.S. will help it with trade, aid and reintegrating it into the "international community."
If not, he said, "The sting of sanctions will be painful if the regime does not change its course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen to one that rejoins the league of nations."
He further warned of the "strongest sanctions in history" if Iran does not end its dangerous and threatening behavior.
"The regime has been fighting all over the Middle East for years," Pompeo said. "After our sanctions come in force, it will be battling to keep its economy alive."
Iran Regime Change
Hard words to be sure. But Obama's genial blandishments didn't change Iran's behavior; to the contrary, it became increasingly belligerent toward the west and its military and terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah have meddled in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere.
Iran had been pushed to the wall by sanctions in 2015. But the JCPOA deal, signed along with Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany, eased sanctions and gave Tehran access to nearly $150 billion in badly needed cash.
The result, Pompeo said: "Iran continues to be, during the JCPOA, the world's largest sponsor of terror."
He listed 12 steps for Iran to rejoin the international community of nations, among them: It must halt its uranium enrichment program; shut down its heavy water reactor; let International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors verify changes in the nuclear program without any restrictions on where they go; stop making and testing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles; release U.S. citizens now in Iranian prisons; stop supporting terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen's Houthis and the Taliban; withdraw from Syria; and stop threatening its neighbors.
Yes, quite a list. But as Pompeo rightly noted, "We didn't create the list, they did."
But the goal really extends beyond the list. Because it's clear from these actions, and from Pompeo's own words, that the U.S. is now really backing something else entirely: regime change. Iranians have been taking to the streets to demonstrate for more freedoms in recent months, including anti-hijab protests by women.
This contrasts sharply with the summer of 2009, when protesters spontaneously took to the streets across Iran and in Tehran, and the Obama administration said...nothing. It was a tragic failure of moral leadership on the part of the U.S. The Trump plan undoes that.
"At the end of the day, the Iranian people will get to make a choice about their leadership," Pompeo said. "If they make the decision quickly, that would be wonderful."
As with its tough-love policy toward North Korea, the new Trump-Pompeo policy is quite tough. But given the failure of the Obama-Kerry Iran nuclear deal to alter Iran's behavior, the alternatives are few. The U.S. also faces opposition from China, Russia and its European partners, all of whom have lucrative financial ties to Iran's fundamentalist Islamic regime.
For nearly 40 years since the Iranian revolution, the U.S. has largely ignored some of Iran's worst behavior in an effort to buy nuclear peace. It didn't work. Now a new strategy is in place, one that will replace an unworkable "nuclear deal" of only 10 years in duration with a lasting treaty that's meant to last forever.
Will it work? We certainly hope so. As a recent IBD/TIPP Poll shows, Americans want Trump to be tough on Iran's nuclear program.
Iran is an ancient civilization, and its people deserve their freedom. At the very least, the U.S. and the West should stop colluding in the Iranian peoples' oppression. This plan is a much-needed first step.
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