Danielle Pletka | Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
The cost to Iran of supporting its militant proxies throughout the Middle East is not cheap. Danielle Pletka notes that during the height of the Trump administration’s maximum-pressure campaign, transfers to Iran’s terrorist proxies dropped dramatically. When Iran does not have money, terrorists do not have money. However, terrorist groups have other sources of income through corruption within humanitarian aid, loopholes in US sanction enforcement, the illegal Captagon drug trade, and more. Read the full testimony here. >>
Kenneth M. Pollack and Daniel Byman | Lawfare
Deepening ties between Russia and Iran are emerging as a counterforce to new Middle Eastern alliances. Kenneth M. Pollack and Daniel Byman explain that an informal alliance with Russia is ideologically and historically odd for Tehran but strategically enticing. Iran needs a great-power backer, and Russia fits the bill. This alliance will likely get stronger in the future. The most dangerous outcome from this alliance would be Russia ignoring or even abetting Iran’s nuclear program. Even if the Iran-Russia relationship does not lead to that terrifying end, the United States should expect Russia to back Iran in resisting any US-led attempts to isolate the clerical regime. Learn more here. >>
Michael Rubin | 19fortyfive.com
The threat of an Israeli strike on Iran is real. Michael Rubin shows that because Iranians are nationalistic, any overt military action by the United States or Israel against Iran would allow the Iranian regime to rally ordinary Iranians around its flag. If Israel must strike Iran, it can mitigate a nationalistic reaction by targeting only senior regime officials, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps sites away from civilian centers, and symbols of regime oppression such as Evin Prison, and it should make clear that there will be no Israeli occupation of Iran. Iran is primed for regime change, but that change should be an indigenous movement led by Iranians for Iranians. Read more here. >>