Opinion: Renewing Iran sanctions is catalyst for regime change

Iranians saw that their situation did not improve after sanctions were removed and that the mullahs are responsible for their suffering. Renewing sanctions now could lead to positive regime change.

By: Daniel Krygier

Former US President Barack Obama had little trouble convincing the Europeans, the Chinese and the Russians to support the Iran nuclear deal in 2015. They were willing to go along with the idea that even a flawed deal is better than no deal.

They also accepted Obama’s claim that no deal and continued sanctions would lead to war and that the deal would stabilize the region, improve the lives for the Iranian people and moderate the Iranian regime’s policies.

Obama’s position has proven to be false.

As a result of the deal and the consequent end of crippling sanctions, the ayatollah’s coffers were filled with 150 billion dollars. Yet, average Iranians could hardly feel any socioeconomic improvements in their personal lives.

The reason is obvious. The suffering of the Iranian people has never been a priority of the ayatollah regime, which frequently blamed it on the sanctions. Continued harsh living conditions and oppression despite the removal of sanctions upset most Iranians who understood that their real enemy is not America and Israel but their own regime.

Broken from the start

The dangerously flawed Iran deal intensified the oppression of the Iranian people and dramatically boosted the ayatollah regime’s imperialist Jihad ambitions.

Mossad’s raid on Iran’s nuclear files showed the world that Tehran still has nuclear weapons ambitions and the Iran deal made it possible for Tehran to invest billions in the continued development of its long-range missile systems that can be fitted with nuclear warheads.

The Iran deal has also fueled the escalating Iranian encirclement of Israel’s borders from Lebanon and Syria in the north to Gaza in the south. It also fueled Tehran’s aggressive military buildup in Syria and emboldened the Iranian regime to step up its aggression against Israel.

Freedom from tyranny for the Iranian people

The ayatollah’s highly expensive Jihad wars have been financed by the same European-led voices that today warn of war if sanctions are again put in place against Iran.

As the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted, only regime change in Tehran will give the Iranian people the freedom and opportunities that the ayatollahs have denied them for decades.

Increased protests by Iranians indicate that they are encouraged by the Trump administration’s policy of confronting rather than appeasing the ayatollah regime.

Average Iranians are fed up with the oppression and the harsh living conditions, which they rightly blame on their own regime. New US-led sanctions might succeed in undermining the mullahs’ power at home and their ability to wage Jihad abroad.

The Iranian people lived under the regime at a time when sanctions were removed. They saw that their lives did not improve. Now it is clear to the Iranian people that the responsible party is the Islamic Republic’s leadership, not the countries that imposed sanctions.

Renewing sanctions at this time, with the Iranian people cognizant of who is causing their suffering, might enhance their efficacy as a catalyst for regime change, as Pompeo noted.

Perhaps this will pave the way to a more peaceful post-ayatollah world order free from oppression and Jihad aggression.

Iran nuclear deal