Regular readers of the Action Update know that Iran’s support for terror is so prevalent that it’s hardly even newsworthy anymore. The same goes for the Islamic Republic’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. And sadly, the international community’s weakness in the face of Iranian belligerence hardly warrants a headline these days. But sometimes, the sum of events is greater than the whole of its parts. And over the past week, all of these appalling realities have come into stark relief.
Tehran’s Terrorists
Earlier this week, Iran’s top diplomat (you know, the one who struck the Iran nuclear agreement) rather undiplomatically threatened the United States for the January 2020
assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, which is responsible for Iran’s terrorist apparatus around the world.
This is hardly the first time Iran has threatened the United States and it won’t be the last. But anyone who is considering meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister in the future would do well to bear in mind that he’s not just in the business of making false promises but also of making real threats.
Speaking of Iran-backed terrorists, one of their proxy groups in Bahrain has announced that it has created a new unit, “The Martyrs of Jerusalem Company,” whose focus is aimed at attacking Israeli targets in Bahrain following that country’s decision to normalize ties with the Jewish state.
America’s Answer
All of this news comes just as we are weeks away from the UN arms embargo against Iran expiring (due to the aforementioned disastrous Iran nuclear accord). The UN Security Council is refusing to consider extending the arms embargo, so the Trump administration has unilaterally reimposed the provision that would “snapback” international sanctions against Iran.
According to Secretary Pompeo, the US will “enforce the U.N. arms embargo and hold those who seek to evade U.N. sanctions accountable.” And our government has already taken relevant action imposing sanctions against Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics among others.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Senators Cotton, Cornyn, Cruz,
Rubio, Scott and Tillis, sent a letter Thursday to the White House urging the President “to impose sanctions on the entirety of Iran’s financial sector.” House members will be sending a similar letter in the coming days. The CUFI Action Fund supports the position of these Senators and Representatives and welcomes their leadership on this issue.
World’s Weakness
All of this sets up a showdown between the US and several world powers, as members of the UN Security Council are using a bit of legal contortionism to avoid multilateral snapback of UN sanctions relieved under the Iran nuclear accord. In a nutshell, because the US stopped giving Iran unilateral sanctions relief, the UN Security Council is arguing that the US cannot – as the relevant Security Council resolution dictates – exercise our right to begin the mechanism by which international sanctions are reimposed against Iran.
Setting aside the fact that this is legally unsound, we are wondering why western nations concerned with stability and peace would ever want the current regime in Tehran to have access to the world market of conventional weapons? Sure, death to America and Israel are the preferred chants of Iranian revolutionaries, but of all the countries on earth, the UK, France and Germany, should know that one cannot achieve peace in our time by appeasing an imperial and dictatorial regime.
If you happen to be
reading this in London, Paris, Berlin or surrounding areas, feel free to let your elected officials know how you feel about their actions (or you could just send them a 20th century history book). In the meantime, here in the US, we’ll do everything we can to maximize the maximum pressure campaign against the world’s leading state sponsor of terror.
Sincerely,
