NCRI Staff
NCRI – The European Union is taking steps to impose sanctions on Iran and has said that any businesses or entities entering deals with the belligerent national could be funding its spread of chaos and support of militias and proxy groups.
United States President Donald Trump is welcoming these steps after his warning that unless major changes are made to the 2015 nuclear agreement the US will be exiting it.
Trump has been an outspoken critic of the nuclear deal and he threatened to scrap it before even taking office. Although he has remained in the deal thus far, he issued a final warning in which he gave his European allies a deadline of 12th May to make major amendments.
The Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, said that sanctions are essential to countering Iran’s belligerence in the Middle East. She said that the US has noted the EU’s efforts in pushing forward for new sanctions and affirmed that it is a step that the US backs.
Germany, France and the United Kingdom proposed new sanctions last month but did not receive the unanimous approval of several other EU countries that it needed. Italy, for example, was concerned about how new sanctions would affect business deals with Iran worth millions.
Mandelker emphasised that Iran is using funds to provide extensive support for several terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Hezbollah and emphasised that public money was going towards the propping up of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Entities and companies engaging in business with the Islamic Republic may knowingly or unknowingly be supporting these malign activities.
She warned those that deal with Iran in business matters despite sanctions are subjecting themselves to indirectly aiding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran has been the main source of conflict and chaos in the region for years and it uses a complex network of front companies to divert money covertly to its numerous militias and proxy groups. The corruption within the Iranian regime is so widespread and at all levels.
The people of Iran took to the streets at the end of December. Protests that were initially about the economic mismanagement and worsening social conditions quickly turned into anti-government demonstrations. The people were heard chanting “down with Rouhani” and “down with the Supreme Leader” and there were calls for regime change.
The Iranian regime enjoyed many easy years of appeasement, especially when former President Barack Obama was in office. The appeasement policies did not work. In fact, they had the opposite effect because Iran became bolder and more brazen in its belligerence.
It is time, once and for all, for appeasement to end and for hard action to be taken. It is already proven that taking a firm position against Iran works. After Trump’s warning that it would blow any Iranian vessels that provoked the US Navy “out of the water”, the provocations stopped.
Now it is time for all leaders to take a more aggressive and less appeasing approach.