http://time.com/4639396/donald-trump-iran/
Jeb Bush and Dennis Ross
Jan 19, 2017
Bush, a former Florida governor, ran for President in 2016. Ross is a former aide to Barack Obama.
react-text: 238 Just days before Christmas, as U.S. policymakers were settling into the holidays, /react-text react-text: 240 Iran /react-text react-text: 241 staged massive /react-text react-text: 243 war drills /react-text react-text: 244 , with one of its top military leaders even boasting that the /react-text react-text: 246 Persian Gulf /react-text react-text: 247 was /react-text react-text: 249 within “range” of its fighting forces /react-text react-text: 250 . At nearly the same time, /react-text react-text: 252 Qassem Soleimani /react-text react-text: 253 , the /react-text react-text: 255 Commander of the Qods Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps /react-text react-text: 256 (IRGC), surveyed the battered remains of /react-text react-text: 258 Aleppo /react-text react-text: 259 . Soleimani now appears prominently wherever the Iranians deploy Shia militias to weaken existing states and regimes in the broader Middle East. Whether threatening to heat up the Persian Gulf or using Shia militias as an instrument of their power, we are witnessing a pattern of Iranian aggression that has accelerated in the year since the nuclear deal with Iran was implemented. /react-text
react-text: 261 While Tehran is saber-rattling and threatening our allies in the region, the response from Washington, unfortunately, has remained muted. Time and again, the Obama administration has ignored the comprehensive nature of the Iranian threat and soft-pedaled non-nuclear sanctions seemingly out of fear that Iran would walk away from the nuclear deal. /react-text
react-text: 263 As a result, and much to the worry of America’s traditional allies, Iran’s leaders have become more emboldened and its footprint continues to grow across the region. /react-text
Treasury Department Adjusts Sanctions on Russia’s Intelligence Agency FSB
react-text: 296 In the past, we have spoken publicly about the flaws of the /react-text react-text: 298 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action /react-text react-text: 299 (JCPOA), which in the end has not halted but only delayed Iran’s path to a bomb—and at the considerable price of abandoning Western leverage against Iran. To respond effectively, the Donald Trump administration should not rip up the deal on day one—that would make U.S. actions and not destabilizing and threatening Iranian behaviors the issue. We need to isolate Iran, not ourselves. But we must raise the costs of continued Iranian intransigence, and to that end, the incoming Trump administration should adopt a more expansive strategy towards Tehran: namely by addressing those vital issues beyond the scope of the agreement, specifically Iran’s chronic regional meddling. /react-text
react-text: 301 While the JCPOA was being negotiated and implemented, Iranian-advisors with Shia militias from as far away as Afghanistan flooded Syria, giving Tehran a military arc of influence stretching to the Mediterranean. Eleven Arab states also recently /react-text react-text: 303 accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism /react-text react-text: 304 and meddling in their internal affairs all while the nuclear agreement has been in effect. The U.S. State Department reached a similar conclusion in June, when it renewed its designation of Iran as the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism, citing a ” /react-text react-text: 306 wide range of Iranian activities to destabilize the region /react-text react-text: 307 .” /react-text
react-text: 309 A new pressure campaign on Iran can help turn the tide. The United States has no shortage of tools for affecting Iran’s behavior. A good one to start with: aggressively enforce the existing sanctions architecture. /react-text
react-text: 314 Beginning on day one, the Trump administration can move quickly by pushing for enforcement of the U.N. travel ban imposed on key figures in the Iranian leadership, like Qassem Soleimani, who has been pictured in Aleppo, Falluja and near Mosul, and has met with counterparts recently in /react-text react-text: 316 Russia /react-text react-text: 317 . That’s not to mention cracking down on Iran’s multiple ballistic missile launches and its continued /react-text react-text: 319 shipments of arms to Yemen /react-text react-text: 320 , violating the U.N. arms embargo. Such behavior is in direct defiance of /react-text react-text: 322 U.N. Resolution 2231 /react-text react-text: 323 , which enshrines the nuclear deal, and is an example of Iran’s lack of accountability. If Iran continues to violate the letter and the spirit of the deal, the United States must be prepared to walk away from the agreement. /react-text
react-text: 325 The new Administration should also move quickly to cut off Iran’s financial pipeline. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control should not provide licenses to /react-text react-text: 327 Boeing /react-text react-text: 328 and Airbus until Iran stops using /react-text react-text: 330 Iran Air /react-text react-text: 331 and other carriers to ferry weapons and personnel for the Assad regime and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The United States should also use its leverage with the Iraqi government to restrict airspace used by Iran for these activities. /react-text
react-text: 333 The new Administration must also establish unmistakable red lines for continued Iranian harassment of U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf, arms shipments to Yemen and other nefarious activity. According to the U.S. military, Iran has stepped up its harassment of U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. Earlier this month, the U.S.S. Mahan was forced to /react-text react-text: 335 fire warning shots /react-text react-text: 336 after IRGC vessels came within 900 yards of the Navy destroyer and did not respond to requests to slow down. According to the Pentagon, a total of 35 interactions with Iranian naval forces were deemed “unsafe and unprofessional” in 2016—in the first half of 2016, the number of clashes were /react-text react-text: 338 roughly double /react-text react-text: 339 the number that occurred during the same period in 2015. Providing new and more robust authority to the U.S. Navy to respond to Iranian provocations would be a significant first step.
Finally, the United States must also become more aggressive in targeting Iran’s aggressions in the Middle East. New bipartisan efforts in Congress to turn back Iran’s destabilizing playbook should be widely supported. The /react-text react-text: 343 Preventing Destabilization of Iraq and Syria Act of 2016 /react-text react-text: 344 , sponsored by U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Casey, provides a strong foundation. It would mandate the imposition of sanctions against terrorist organizations and foreign countries, like Iran, “that threaten the peace or stability of Iraq or Syria.” Such measures should also be extended to cover other crucial U.S. allies in the region, namely Israel, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It will be imperative for the incoming Administration to maintain the bipartisan consensus in Congress that the status quo in Damascus and Baghdad—and Iran’s role there—is unacceptable. /react-text
react-text: 346 The Trump administration must broaden the agenda to account for Iran’s aggressive behavior and inappropriate involvement across the Middle East. Only through a new campaign of pressure can the U.S. demonstrate to Iran that it runs very great risks if its policies don’t change and if it is ever tempted to pursue nuclear weapons again. Tougher policies now are likely to reduce the risk of escalated conflict later on. /react-text
Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007 and a 2016 Republican candidate for president, is an advisory board member of United Against Nuclear Iran. Dennis Ross, counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and cofounder of United Against Nuclear Iran, was a special assistant to President Obama from 2009 to 2011.
