The developments we see unfolding today affirm that the mullah regime has turned Iran into a rogue state. They also demonstrate that the approach that the West and the US have followed in dealing with Iran has failed, particularly since the failed 2015 nuclear agreement signed by former President Barack Obama.
The nuclear deal signed at the time only addressed enrichment levels and a few facilities, overlooking other weapons, most dangerously missiles and drones, which the mullah regime had demonstrably been using in the region.
In 2015, they didn’t heed the warnings of the countries of the region, including Israel, about the dangers of ignoring the missiles and drones, as well as Iran’s regional proxy militias.
It has become clear that these threats were real. The nuclear deal is not being respected. Instead, Iran benefited from access to over 100 billion dollars in assets abroad that had been frozen at the time, and it was allowed to sell its oil and thus fund its militias, continue to manufacture drones, and engage in other activities of this sort.
Today, Iranian drones are striking Kiyv, which is an attack on NATO because, without NATO’s support, Kiyv would have fallen to the Russians long ago. Worse still, the parts for these drones had been purchased from the US and Europe, showing just how careless the Western and American strategy has been.
The threat posed by Iran’s militias was also underestimated. The plainest example is the Houthis, who refuse to extend the ceasefire and continue to wreak havoc in Yemen, and everyone knows that this is Iran’s decision, as the mullahs want to use the Houthis to negotiate an end to the media coverage of the protests.
The mullahs have already targeted Saudi territory, only retreating after realizing that such attacks would have dangerous repercussions for them. Meanwhile, the presidential vacuum in Lebanon continues, and Iraq continues to falter because of Iran’s militias.
On top of all of that, the regime is vicious with its own people, who have taken to the streets to voice their opposition to the regime and its crimes, openly attacking Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and calling for the downfall of his regime.
In response, the Iranian regime has publicly executed youths in the streets and barbarically tortured detainees, both men and women, beating, sexually assaulting, and raping them in a clampdown of unprecedented savagery.
As all of this happens, the US and the West are satisfied with individual sanctions on figures that don’t care about sanctions. If anything, these sanctions boost their standing among their supporters and strengthen their position within the regime, giving them an advantage over rivals in the mullah regime’s obvious power struggle.
And so, the question now for the United States and Europe is: when will we see an end to this leniency in dealing with the mullah regime, whose crimes in Iran and the region, as well as Ukraine, are apparent for all to see? That is besides the attempts to kidnap individuals in the US and its threats to British journalists over their coverage of the protests in Iran.
For all these reasons, we should and expect to see an “automatic” resumption of sanctions by the US and UN, and especially the EU, through the “snapback” mechanism within the failed 2015 agreement.
If Iran is not declared a rogue state, who is? What human rights and stability are the West, and before it, the US, talking about? For this reason, the mullahs’ crimes should be dealt with, and the Iranian people should be supported.
