Iran Focus
London, 16 Feb – Last month the US put Iran “on notice” for -once again- violating the 2015 nuclear deal by testing ballistic missiles.
Two days later, The White House extended sanctions against the Gulf country to include 25 more companies and individuals.
In response, Iran conducted more missile tests and the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, tried to act bravely in response to the US threat.
He said: “No enemy can paralyse the Iranian nation. [Trump] says ‘you should be afraid of me.’ No!”
Unfortunately for the Regime, he couldn’t convince anyone of that and the White House warned that they will not take lightly to Iran’s hostile actions.
James Mattis, the Secretary of Defence, explained that he was in favour of enforcing the nuclear deal (and all its sanctions) rigorously, despite calling Iran, the number one state sponsor of terrorism.
It is clear that the new administration will not give Iran a free pass on ‘minor violations, like excessive supplies of heavy water (a material used to manufacture nuclear weapons).
However, Ali Safavi, Member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) wrote on the Huffington Post: “Mattis may support measures undercutting the JCPOA if it turned out that the agreement was limiting the administration’s ability to confront Iran over other issues.”
While the Iranian Regime was previously able to skirt around the letter of the law by using loopholes and pleading ignorance, the new administration will not stand for it.
Safavi hopes, along with many others committed to human rights, that the Trump administration will not appease the Iranian Regime and instead reach out to the Resistance forces, as advised by a bipartisan group of former top national security advisors.
Another option is to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terror organisation, following the recent reveal of their terror training camps in Iran.
Safavi wrote: “The malign conduct of the IRGC and its extraterritorial arm, the Quds Force in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen should have been recognised the world over as proof of the persistently aggressive preoccupations of the Iranian regime.”
He continued: “It should be clear to the administration and to the American public that they are better off holding the Iranian regime accountable for their terrorism, their destabilising role in the region, and rights violations at home.”
