Some weeks, it’s tough to resist the urge to repeat ourselves. Admittedly this is a roundabout I told you so for many in power, but the simple truth is, we’d rather be wrong. We’d rather negotiations with Tehran and its henchman solve points of disagreement but given Iran’s nonnegotiable position that Israel must cease to exist, any agreements with evil’s modern incarnation will prove short-lived at best.  The only long-term solution to the current conflict(s) in the Middle East is regime change in Iran.

On the Brink

On Sunday, Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, delivered a stark warning that by the end of this year, Iran could declare itself a nuclear weapons state. Clearly, the consistent effort to placate Iran has only emboldened the Islamic Republic.

The United States, Europe, Israel, the Gulf Arab nations, and the rightful government in Yemen, have all suffered terrorism at the hands of Iran and its proxies (just to name a few).

Exporting the Islamic revolution through violence is not only the preeminent foreign policy approach of the Islamic Republic, but it is the foundational notion behind the regime's ascendency to power in 1979.

The very nature of such a murderous regime makes it impossible to engage them in a meaningful dialogue (Pro Tip: when you have to repeatedly claim you’re engaged in a meaningful dialogue, you probably aren’t). As such, any agreements made will be manipulated or outright violated by Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the rest of the Middle East’s Tehran-backed bad actors.  

Just as we explained several years ago to key elected officials in the context of U.S. aid to the Lebanese Armed Forces, if one leases stability by enriching adversaries, conflict is not avoided, it is simply delayed and deadlier. Incidentally, we are grateful to the Members of Congress who’ve recently changed their position and now oppose continued U.S. aid to the LAF – but we’ve already reached our I told you so limit so we’ll leave that here (for now).

Retaking the Initiative

The Biden administration must stop engaging in geopolitics and its associated conflicts on our adversaries’ terms. It’s a fact of life that peaceful countries are not often afforded the luxury to decide when to go to war (if they did, as Immanuel Kant and Thomas Payne explained, we might not see much war at all).

Nonetheless, democracies, especially those with robust economies, can minimize the appetite for war, and the means by which to wage it, amongst even the most evil regimes by utilizing the considerable diplomatic and economic resources available to the President of the United States and our European allies.

Here we are again, resisting the urge to repeat ourselves, as the above is simply (and admittedly) diplo-speak best summed up in just two words: Maximum Pressure.

Laws and Orders

The U.S. should (re)apply a campaign of maximum diplomatic and economic pressure against the rulers in Tehran coupled with support for the Iranian people who wish to see a government free of the radical Islamist despots who have been ruling them since 1979.

Congress has passed and the President has signed several pieces of law that though on the books, the Biden administration is not utilizing to their full effect. This is unacceptable. Ignoring recent Congressional action targeting Iran undermines the will of the American people, emboldens Tehran (see above or just open a newspaper), and increases the prospects for even more conflict in the region.

For example, CUFI strongly backed the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act, which directs the President to impose sanctions on port operators, refineries, and other entities linked to Iranian oil, but the law is not being fully implemented.

Other recent bills that are directly related to Iran’s malign activities and have been signed into law are The Fight CRIME Act, which directs the President to impose sanctions on persons the President determines are engaged in efforts to transfer missile or drone-related technology to or from Iran, and the MAHSA Act, which directs the White House to determine whether the Supreme Leader and other specified Iranian officials meet the criteria for sanctions under various extant authorities (spoiler alert: he is, and he’s worth billions, so have at). As with the SHIP Act, these laws are also not being fully implemented.

In the lead-up to the now defunct 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, whose abhorrent rewards we are currently reaping, many in the foreign policy community, CUFI included, saw that the regime was 6 months away from economic collapse, which likely would’ve ushered a government for the people and by the people of Iran. But the Obama administration didn’t care.

Iran is stronger today than when President Obama took office; likewise for President Biden. The regime’s Gestapo-like morality policy are (still!) beating and shooting women and teenage girls in the streets for failing to properly wear a head covering.

Every day the status quo remains in Tehran, there will be more innocent blood shed inside and outside Iran. If the Iranian people are given a real chance, however, they could take their country back from the thugs, bullies, and terrorists that run it.

The time has long since passed for the people of Iran who seek change to have the requisite backing via an aggressive coercive diplomacy campaign and the United States to have a clearly stated foreign policy goal of bringing the Islamic Revolution of 1979 to an end and with it the regime in charge.

Sincerely,

The CUFI Action Fund Team