Facing Down Iran
The Trump administration’s top officials last week unleashed a full-court rhetorical press at the United Nations against Iran — and, more important, against Tehran’s enablers, who are working hard to undermine Washington’s reimposed sanctions regime.
Even as the president, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton used the opening of the General Assembly to call on its members to join in isolating Iran, the European Union was launching a financial mechanism aimed at letting Tehran evade US sanctions.
It’s a last-ditch effort to salvage the discredited 2015 nuclear deal that President Trump has exited, by giving foreign companies a way to avoid the USbanking system in sending money to and from Iran.
Whatit actually does, however, is allow Iran to continue exporting terrorism and sowing regional instability while bolstering its ballistic-missile system.
To call this “counterproductive,” as Pompeo did, is an understatement. In fact, it only shows that when it comes to standing up to Iran, the EU“is strong on rhetoric and weak on follow-through.” Indeed, he added, the ayatollahs doubtless “were laughing this morning” after learning of the EU proposal.
It was left to Bolton to deliver a tough message in characteristically blunt terms: Washington, he said “is not naïve. We will not be duped, cheated or intimidated.” Which means “we do not intend to allow our sanctions to be evaded.” The need for that was reinforced Thursday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of hiding nuclear materials in a Tehran warehouse.
And just in case Bolton’s message didn’t get through, he was even more forthright: “The murderous regime and its supporters will face significant consequences if they do not change their behavior. Let my message today be clear: We are watching, and we will come after you.”
As it happens, most experts suggest the European maneuver (whose details remain sketchy) ultimately won’t be successful. But Team Trump has made its meaning clear: It intends to keep Iran from acquiring nukes, and — unlike his predecessor — means to curtail its rogue behavior.
And it won’t abide any appeasement or mischiefmaking from those in Europe who would both speak softly and throw away the stick.