Iran Focus
London, 6 Feb – The Iranian Regime has been significantly weakened in the past two weeks since Donald Trump took office, but how can we go further?
Heshmat Alavi, a human rights expert, wrote an op-ed on American Thinker about bringing the Iranian mullahs ‘to their knees’.
Following Iran’s latest missile test, the USA have taken many actions against Iran:
• the Treasury Department extending the sanctions against another 25 Iranian entities
• Trump tweeted that the Regime was ‘on notice’
• Mike Pence refused to rule out military action against Iran
• James Mattis called Iran the world’s “biggest state sponsor of terrorism”.
Normally, the Iranian Regime would respond to these remarks with a statement but this time, they have not; proving perhaps that the Regime is not equipped to handle a Trump Presidency.
Some people, like Phillip Gordon, Obama’s White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf region from 2013 to 2015, claim that the harshness of the Trump administration towards Iran may cause further national security issues, including terror attacks against Americans or the American military.
Alavi notes that this fails to recognise that previous concessions in favour of the Regime have not stopped US personnel or civilians from attacks.
He wrote: “The Obama Doctrine left the entire Middle East in mayhem, to say the least. After the loss of so many lives, Iraq was gift-wrapped for Iran, and the mullahs’ Shiite militias now roam freely, causing havoc using U.S.-provided weaponry.”
He continued: “The past two presidencies proved that neither war nor appeasement is the answer to tackling the mullahs.”
So, what path should the Trump administration take now?
Alavi notes that the only alternative to the Regime is the Iranian Resistance and that Trump should actively work with their democratic opposition forces in order to achieve peace in the region.
He wrote that Trump should heed the advice of Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), who said that all trade with companies affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) should be banned immediately.
The IRGC is the biggest force for domestic oppression and foreign interventionism in Iran; in fact, he notes that they should be recognised as a “foreign terrorist organisation”. Destroying the IRGC would destroy the Regime.
