Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Feb. 24, 2019 – In an article published on White House website, Victoria Coates, Deputy Assistant to the U.S. President and Senior Director for the Middle East outlines the U.S. strategy to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime.
Citing the Islamic Republic’s hostile and destabilizing actions, Coates writes: “Under the President’s direction, we have prioritized the maximum pressure campaign placing unprecedented stress on Iran’s economy, forcing Tehran to make increasingly difficult choices.”
Referring to the impact of U.S. sanctions against the Iranian regime and current U.S. administration’s abandoning the JCPOA, she says: “Predictions that unilateral U.S. sanctions would weaken and isolate America as the rest of the globe pursued instead do business with Iran have proven false; conversely, Iran has found itself increasingly alone and bereft of the anticipated influx of foreign investment that was to save its moribund economy.”
“As President Rouhani himself admitted, Iran will move into a period of unprecedented stress on its economy in the second quarter of 2019. We want this pressure to be decisive and we are supplementing sanctions with broader efforts to increase the cost of Iran’s destructive and destabilizing policies to an intolerable level as the President Trump’s strategy requires,” the senior U.S. official further adds.
Describing Iranian regime’s “malign behavior in the region is a direct and significant threat to the United States’ economic and strategic interests and to the American people” which “risks triggering a wider conflict,” Coates describes the wider diplomatic efforts to further isolate the ruling theocracy in Iran.
“There is more we can do to roll back Iran’s activities within its borders and in the region. We can continue to encourage warmer ties between Iraq and the Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. We have already made substantial progress aligning Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in support of the President’s Iran Strategy. Increasingly overt Israeli cooperation with a range of Arab countries across the economic and security sectors benefits them all. We must seize every opportunity to make this collaboration the “new normal” to the benefit of all involved,” Coates writes.
“The 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution brings into sharp focus the regime’s failure to provide the radical change from entrenched corruption promised in 1979, as well as the dismal future prospects for Iran if it continues on the current path. Popular criticism of Tehran for economic mismanagement continues to resonate, and taboos surrounding public discussion of the Supreme Leader’s succession process continue to erode.”
Coates concludes: “Our key message to the Iranian people, the long-suffering victims of the regime, should be loud and clear: Forty years from now, your outlook can be radically different.”
