Weekly Standard: http://www.weeklystandard.com/iranian-impunity/article/2001506
Senior Policy Analyst Tzvi Kahn writes: To change Tehran’s behavior, the United States must impose meaningful consequences on Iran for its embargo violations and other acts of defiance. It can begin by vetoing any arms sale at the U.N. Security Council. It should also impose comprehensive new sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — the key beneficiary of illicit arms transfers, the custodian of Iran’s ballistic missile program, and the spearhead of its regional aggression and domestic repression. In the absence of such steps, Iranian belligerence will continue — and render UNSCR 2231 a dead letter. – Foreign Policy Initiative
Iran test-launched a series of ballistic missiles Wednesday in an exercise that dramatized Tehran’s determination to bolster its arsenal in the aftermath of last year’s nuclear accord. The Obama administration labeled the missile launches provocative, but said the firings did not violate the terms of last year’s nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, including the United States. – Los Angeles Times
Elliott Abrams writes: So, the bases on which the nuclear agreement with Iran was sold appear to be crumbling. Moderates are not gaining power, Iran is not moderating its behavior, and we know less rather than more about what it is actually doing in its nuclear program. Some of those conclusions are denied by the administration and by credulous portions of the press, and others are ignored. But all those verbal games will not make us any safer. – CFR’s Pressure Points
Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh write: Iran is at an impasse. It has an economy that it cannot reform, a political order that it cannot liberalize, and a population that it cannot propitiate. There are now no pressure valves, no avenues toward a politics of accountability. On some occasion, something will spark another protest movement. But the Islamic Left won't be there to defend the system. The clerical regime again will have to use brute force. And as the Arab Spring and everything that followed has shown, brute force may not be enough to squash a popular insurrection. – Foreign Affairs
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