The pro-Iran engagement policy
camp long advocated how a nuclear agreement with Iran would lead to a slate of
numerous changes sought in the regime, rendering benefits to go around for
everyone. More than one year down this road, the world has witnessed many
changes in Iran. However, they are nothing to boast about.
The nuclear accord, while it should have never
been supported or discussed by the international community in the first place,
has been successively violated by the Iranian regime. Tehran continues its
atrocious executions, human rights violations and ongoing oppression of
ordinary citizens inside the country. And the mullahs in Tehran have continued
their mantra of exporting “Islamic Revolution” by engulfing the entire Middle
East, and beyond, into mayhem, as we are unfortunately witnessing so vividly
today in Syria.
The pro-Iran engagement policy
camp long advocated how a nuclear agreement with Iran would lead to a slate of
numerous changes sought in the regime, rendering benefits to go around for
everyone. More than one year down this road, the world has witnessed many
changes in Iran. However, they are nothing to boast about.
The nuclear accord, while it should have never
been supported or discussed by the international community in the first place,
has been successively violated by the Iranian regime. Tehran continues its
atrocious executions, human rights violations and ongoing oppression of
ordinary citizens inside the country. And the mullahs in Tehran have continued
their mantra of exporting “Islamic Revolution” by engulfing the entire Middle
East, and beyond, into mayhem, as we are unfortunately witnessing so vividly
today in Syria.
The main “change” we have
witnessed in Iran has been the numerous instances where the regime has either
stretched or actually violated the flaw-riddled Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA), the heavy water-level limit aggression being the latest such
case.
The reinstatement of the Iran Sanctions Act with
99 votes in favor was a very important first step. This move has set an example
of what is needed to guarantee Iran understands there will be consequences for
agreement violations. And yet we need to go beyond and build upon this momentum.
Watch On Forbes: Donald Trump Pledges To Rip Up Iran Deal; Israelis Say Not So Fast
This is the time to counter
Iran’s terrorism in the region and the world. Iran is and has been, of course,
the world’s leading
state-sponsor of terrorism. Iran is busy destabilizing
Syria with an incredible human catastrophe, as in Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon,
boasting about enjoying control over four Arab capitals of the region.
The “change” we have seen in this regard is
that Tehran is willing to dispatch tens of thousands of proxy militias to Syria
and repeat a Srebrenica-style massacre, caring not an iota about how the international community might
respond. Let us hope Aleppo has opened our eyes to the horrific potential
in Iran’s support for extremism and its export of Islamic fundamentalism.
The “change” the world has witnessed in Iran’s
pursuit of a vast weapons-of-mass-destruction program is its bold new approach
in proliferating efforts related to mastering ballistic missiles. Iran’s
missile tests have continued to violate United Nations Security Council
resolutions, yet there has been hardly any serious global response.
Iran’s ballistic missile tests “are not
consistent with the constructive spirit” of the JCPOA, former UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report.
As we speak, reports indicate the
Iran-fostered and -nurtured Lebanese Hezbollah vaunts of stocking over 120,000 missiles in
its arsenal. If gone unanswered, there is no limit to what extent Iran will
exploit the lack of will diseasing the international community.
This is the time to confront Iran over its
violation of human rights on its own home turf. In 2009, the Iranian people
revolted for their God-given rights, shaking the very pillars of the regime’s
foundations. And yet former U.S. President Barack Obama, then recently elected
to the White House by the American people with high hopes of “change,” failed
to respond to their cries for support. The oppression and repression of the
mullahs’ regime that followed is something the world should never forget.
As Obama continued his devastating appeasement
policy with Iran, the mullahs have not changed their course. They have not
changed their designs. They have not changed their hegemonic focus.
This is a time for the United States to respond.
Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has in cooperation with Senator Robert Corker
(R-TN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the Countering
Iran Threat Act. This, too, is an initiative that the next Congress can and
is recommended to build upon.
If so, this can be the building
blocks of the West, spearheaded by America, deterring Iranian aggression. This
can lead us, as a world, in moving to a better day and a higher hope where the
Iranian people can ultimately achieve the freedoms and blessings the democratic
world enjoys today.
The world now finds itself before an
opportunity to counter Iran’s continuing threats. We are entering a new era in
American foreign and national security policy.
In a letter hand-delivered to U.S. President
Donald Trump, nearly two dozen former senior U.S. government
officials–representing a rare bipartisan spectrum–urged Washington to work with
the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of
Iran.
As Iran continues its domestic oppression and
military buildup, this should be one focus of the Trump administration’s
foreign policy and the agenda of the new Congress.
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