Without Sanctions, Iran’s Provocations Would Be Deadlier
Imagine if the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had more money to spend.
Imagine what tens of billions of dollars might buy.
Photographer: U.S. Navy/Getty Images EuropeFor critics of President Donald Trump’s Iran policy, the latest display of bravado by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s naval wing is proof that the U.S. “maximum-pressure” sanctions campaign isn’t working. These “dangerous and provocative” maneuvers around U.S. warships, goes the argument, torpedo the administration’s claim of having “restored deterrence” with the Islamic Republic. More broadly, they also demonstrate that the sanctions have failed to restrain the Iranian regime’s dangerous and provocative tendencies.
True, the Trump administration exaggerates the effects of its campaign against the regime. But it also has the unenviable task of proving the negative. To understand the true impact of the sanctions on Tehran’s behavior, imagine how much more dangerous and provocative Iran would have been in their absence.