The US President Donald Trump has recently announced his strategy toward the Iranian regime and its hostile behavior and the threat of IRGC and its proxy militias in the Middle East. However, this strategy cannot be considered escalation against the Iranian regime as much as correction of huge failures of former US administration headed by Barak Obama and his Secretary of State, John Kerry.
After signing the nuclear deal, the Iranian regime breathed a huge sigh of relief. The agreement was a lifeline for this regime not because of the deal itself, but because of its terms that viewed Iran in a narrow sense—the nuclear weapons, and completely disregarded the other related issues like the support of terrorism and sectarianism and destabilizing activities in the region.
Trump’s strategy is a window of opportunity to provide a more realistic international overview on dealing with the extremist leadership regime in Iran. The US Department of Treasury reached an eleventh-hour decision and placed the IRGC and its proxy militias on the list of terrorist organizations, but it turned to be correct. Nevertheless, some gaps in this decision need to be filled.
By premeditation, the Supreme Leadership regime licensed and sponsored IRGC to expand and interfere abroad Iranian borders in article 154 of the Iranian constitution. In fact, the IRGC does not differ from the terrorist non-state actors like Al-Qaida, ISIS, Boko Haram, and others.
Hence, the US Department of Treasury decision has to move from paper to implementation, so everyone realizes the serious threats of the Iranian regime that are not confined to particular countries but extend to the whole world through the Iranian sectarian militias as well as active and sleeper cells.
Trump’s new strategy is facing several internal and external challenges. Internally, there is a frenzied media campaign to abort it; perhaps, not because of the strategy itself, but for personal feuds with the president. In addition, some lobbies used these media disputes to attack Trump’s strategy in favor of the Iranian regime. Externally, the US administration has to convince the European Community of the necessity to confront the Iranian hostilities and prevent Tehran from developing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads; basically, by renegotiating the terms of the nuclear deal to curb the Iranian activities and restore stability in the Middle East.
Many European nations were caught in the Iranian economic trap- that looked appetizing from the outside and sought to eat the big piece of the Iranian pie, disregarding the fallacy of trickle-down economics from within.
The European countries were excited about the nuclear deal in its current context, but ignored or could not realize the fact that the IRGC controls Iran’s economy and that it had built a huge economic empire that gradually eliminated the well known–over history, “Bazar” class in Iran until–most recently, the Green Revolution in 2009. Since then, the IRGC took complete control of all Iran’s economic sectors.
Based on that assumption, investment in Iran—with its current circumstances strengthens the IRGC that is desperate for acceptance by the Iranian people. This is evident in the Iranian young people’s comments on Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif’s tweet on the US Department of Treasury decision concerning the IRGC when he said, “The Iranian people—boys and girls, are proud of the IRGC and look at it as their representative.” Most comments—if not all, declined Zarif’s tweet and posted pictures and comments that show how the Iranian youth are deeply upset with the IRGC and its Basij forces that crushed the Green Movement, killed protesters by snipers, kidnapped and imprisoned many of the human rights and social media activists and journalists, reporters, and others.
All in all, we are waiting for the realization of Trump’s strategy and enter into force. We also expect some European countries to take up the new US tendencies—partially or as a whole, which will oblige the Iranian regime to change its behaviors inside Iran and abroad.
We always ask for a redefinition for terrorism and be aware of sponsors of terrorism -especially the Iranian regime- the most serious one side by side with ISIS and its counterparts. However, there is an opportune moment to correct the many recent failures of the West, achieve stability in the Middle East, and preserve their interests in this region.
Being the closest neighbors to Iran, we—the GCC and Arab countries, are the hardest-hit by the Iranian hostile activities. Before, we lost the opportunity to exert pressure on the P5+1 group to take part in the negotiating team and make our conditions and express our conservation on the terms of the nuclear deal. The opportunity may recur, knowing that the US Congress has sixty more days for a re-evaluation for the nuclear deal that we expect to survive with some amendments. Indeed, we have to exert pressure to redraft the agreement to address the aforementioned concerns and ensure stability and security and eliminate Tehran’s hostile behavior in the Middle East.
Translated Material: Watan SA
Opinions in this article reflect the writer’s point of view, not necessarily the view of The Arabain GCIS
