By Jubin Katiraie
Over the past 30 years, America has been involved in several conflicts in the Middle East and the last thing that anyone needs is for the US and Iran to be at war, which is why it’s good that Donald Trump decided not to launch a military strike in Iran in retaliation for shooting down a US drone.
The thing that will really punish the Iranian regime is economic sanctions, which the US has been doing since Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal last year and continued to do last week. The sanctions have blocked Iran’s main source of revenue (oil exports) and frozen the US-based assets of those responsible for some of the most heinous crimes.
Now, the European signatories have tried to set up a special financial mechanism to facilitate barter trade with Iran in a desperate attempt to save the nuclear deal, but this hasn’t worked. Iran is complaining that it is not receiving the benefits promised to it under the deal, even though the country has refused to pass anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing bills that would encourage businesses and countries to have faith in them.
Thus, Iran vowed that on July 7, it will increase its uranium enrichment purity levels above the 3.67% limit agreed in the deal. They have also recently increased their stockpile of low-enriched uranium above 300 kilograms. This is causing many to worry that Iran is shortening its breakout time to create a nuclear weapon.
Iran claims this is not a violation of the agreement, but all of the other signatories and the International Atomic Energy Agency disagree.
Other people who disagree include the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), whose supporters gathered in Brussels earlier this month to protest Tehran’s malign behaviour. At that rally, the coordinator of The Campaign for Iran Change, Struan Stevenson, urged Europe to “wake up, …abandon your disgraceful appeasement policy and follow America’s lead by blacklisting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. America and the EU should … blacklist its Ministry of Intelligence and Security”.
The message is that Europe should let the Iranian people know that the West supports them, even when the regime is trying to crush their voices.
Stevenson said: “For four decades, the Iranian people have put up with rampant corruption, unchecked abuse of human rights, (including) women’s rights. Eighty million Iranians are angry, frustrated, and demanding regime change.”
Therefore, no one should support war with Iran, but rather regime change by and for the Iranian people.
