Get tough with Iran

Donald Trump has announced new sanctions against 14 Iranian individuals and entities as punishment for their treatment of citizens taking part in recent protests. And yet, for all the obvious criminality of the regime, the world continues to hold back when it comes to demanding reform. On the contrary, several countries, including Britain, have insisted that the nuclear deal, clearly being used as cover by Iran to develop a long-term weapons programme, remains in effect. Mr Trump has agreed to lift a separate raft of sanctions for another period on the proviso that the deal is at least toughened up. This is a battle that Washington must stick to and win.

The protests are the reason why. They showed that domestic support for the regime is dwindling, that a mass – apparently unorganised – body of opinion backs change, just as the anti-communist revolution in, say, Romania came as a complete surprise. Many of the protestors signalled that they were sick of Iran’s wealth being spent on exporting terrorism and conflict with the West. Moreover, the regime’s insistence that poverty is caused solely by sanctions is clearly not believed: officials are corrupt and, just as in the old Eastern Bloc, enjoy a higher standard of living than those they rule with an iron fist.

We keep returning to the comparison with the fall of the Berlin Wall because it is a reminder that no regime is permanent. With the right application of diplomatic and economic force, and an appropriate military posture (short of foreign intervention, which is completely off the table), a dictatorship can be brought down. The Iranians have just as much right as anyone else to build their own democracy.