Following Iran’s medium-range ballistic missile launch that eventually ended in failure, the administration of President Donald Trump added insult to injury by blasting at Tehran, using language the mullahs haven’t been used to in the past 8 years.
“As of today, we are
officially putting Iran on notice,” U.S. National Security Advisor Michael
Flynn said during a very firm-toned two minutes from the White House podium,
resorting to comments that sent shockwaves across the international political
spectrum and media.
While neither President
Trump nor any of his national security team has elaborated how the U.S. can
pursue on retaliatory actions, rest assured Tehran is understanding this new
tone quite well. And we should not be concerned about any boasting heard from
senior advisors or spokesman in the Iranian regime apparatus.
For now reports show Team
Trump gearing to impose a fresh round of sanctions targeting a number of
Iranian individuals and entities.
This is quite a contrast for Iran to swallow, following the Obama
administration going the limits and bending backwards to such extents as to
providing $150 billion under a highly flawed deal that was supposedly aimed at
curbing Iran’s nuclear program and suspicious ambitions in this
regard.
Flynn is now seen
forcefully condemning Iran’s actions in the first remarks he has made in his
new and highly influential post, going on to accuse Iran of threatening America’s
allies and provoking instability across the region.
“The Obama
administration failed to respond adequately to Tehran’s malign actions —
including weapons transfers, support for terrorism and other violations of
international norms,” Flynn added.
This clear warning
should also be evaluated as a seemingly anticipated manifestation of Trump
living up to his campaign promise of adopting a tough perspective on Tehran.
Flynn also targeted
another Iran weak point by pressing the mullahs’ support for their proxy Shiite
Houthis in Yemen after the group claimed a successful attack targeting a Saudi
navy vessel.
Trump administration
officials have accused Iran of providing vital support for the Houthis by arming, financing and training their
efforts, and seeking to establish a long-term foothold in Yemen.
To show how important
Yemen is for Iran, and how Iranian officials took advantage of Obama’s
appeasement policy and lame-duck approach.
“Having naval bases in
remote distances is not less than nuclear power,” said Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, Iran’s
armed forces chief of staff. “It is ten times more important and creates
deterrence.”
The atmosphere has
recently changed significantly. While first denying any ballistic missile
testing, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan was forced to confirm how the
regime actually did carry out a missile test.
On the sidelines of the
controversial Iran nuclear deal, the mullahs’ are also signatory to an
eight-year extension of a U.N. prohibition measure banning the development of
ballistic missiles. With the U.N. Security Council taking measures to endorse
the pact, the Iranian regime must be made to understand now, and once and for
all, that such actions will be responded with significant punitive measures.
Irony lies in the fact
that one can easily conclude how Iran is allocating the windfall provided by
the Obama administration for measures such as enhancing ballistic missiles and
continuing its belligerent meddling in regional countries, including its involvement in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. And the Iranian people have yet to
benefit from their own God-given national riches, despite enjoying the 2nd largest
proven natural gas reserves and the 3rd largest prove oil reserves.
Iran’s “nuclear and
missile program is against the Iranian people’s interest and must be stopped,” Maryam Rajavi, President of the main Iranian
opposition, National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI),
said through a video message presented at a recent U.S. Senate conference.
The NCRI consists of a
slate of dissident entities, including the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK),
and is known to consistently unveil various aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missile initiatives, meddling across the region and human rights violations.
As the Trump
administration weighs new sanctions on the mullahs, Iran’s Revolutionary
Guards, being the entity behind all of Tehran’s meddling across the Middle East
and spearheading their ballistic missile program and nuclear drive, should be
blacklisted as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
A close figure to former
Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani had described the Obama years as a “golden era”.
Rest assured from this
day forward Iran will be treading this path very carefully. And yet the Trump
administration will sooner than later realize such rhetoric, backed by
meaningful measures, are what will tame the mullahs’ regime.
Heshmat Alavi is a political and rights activist. His
writing focuses on Iran, ranging from human rights violations, social
crackdown, the regime’s support for terrorism and meddling in foreign
countries, and the controversial nuclear program.
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