The US imposes new sanctions on Iranian officials
Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin details the Trump administration’s new sanctions on Iranian officials. California GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton joins ‘The Faulkner Focus’ to share his thoughts.
Having already signaled his willingness to use US military power last year in the B-2 attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities that ended the Twelve-Day War, President Donald Trump is strongly supporting the brave Iranian people as they enter their third week of protests against the theocratic regime that has oppressed them for so long.
President Trump’s response to the Iranian protests could not be more different from President Obama’s response to the Green Revolution of 2009. Just days after Obama delivered a speech in Cairo entitled “A New Beginning,” in which he extended an outstretched hand to the mullahs in hopes of diplomatic engagement, the Iranian people uncomfortably poured into the streets to protest an obviously fraudulent election. It took the regime days to formulate an effective response.
Even after unarmed protesters were shot in the streets, Obama opted for strategic silence, despite the fact that the Islamic Republic had been an implacable enemy of America for some thirty years at that point. As his future Secretary of State John Kerry suggested in The New York Times, Obama’s restraint would prevent the mullahs from blaming America for the protests, while leaving the door open for the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that Kerry would negotiate.
TRUMP-HEALTH MEETING AFTER REPORTED IRANIAN PRINCE AS REGIME AGAINST PROTESTS
Obama’s silence turned out to be great for the Iranian regime, which in the coming years would push his government toward that disastrous nuclear deal that meant hundreds of billions of dollars for Tehran but a disaster for the Iranian people. The protests were forgotten as the regime attacked them with impunity, but came to nothing.
Eighteen years later, President Trump seems determined not to repeat this unfortunate failure. While he also offered Tehran the opportunity for diplomacy over their nuclear program, when they refused to negotiate in good faith, he ordered the B-2 bombings. After the combined might of Israel and the US in the Twelve Day War revealed that the regime was paper tigers, the Iranian people have come back to life.
Tehran’s failure to provide basic services like food, water and fuel – not to mention a stable currency or a functioning economy – has encouraged them to take to the streets and stay there with numbers and tenacity that dwarf those of 2009.
Importantly, the Iranian people know that China, the regime’s main patron, did nothing to help them during the war – and will not save them now.
EXILED Iranian CROWN PRINCE APPEALS TO TRUMP AS IRAN PROTESTS MARK ‘CERTAIN’ MOMENT
In March 2021, at the start of President Joe Biden’s term, China and Iran signed a strategic partnership that marked 25 years of economic and security cooperation. Since then, the PRC has targeted Iran, using it for natural resources and military support for their other vassal, Russia. In theory, at least, they have strengthened the regime’s defenses in return.
But when Israel and America attacked, those defenses were worthless and China took no action — something the Trump administration also noted, suggesting there is an opportunity to reduce Beijing’s influence in the Middle East and its access to cheap Iranian energy imports.
A more sinister Chinese export to Iran is the so-called National Information Network (NIN), derisively called the “halal internet” by the Iranians. This PRC-designed information control tool, strengthened after the 2019 protests, is the mechanism that allowed the regime to shut down the internet across Iran for almost a week. Given the costs to their already faltering economy, they cannot continue down this path indefinitely, but for now it has been an effective way to suppress communications in and out of Iran.
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If emergency communications systems can be retained or replaced with a satellite-based system, targeted kinetic and cyber attacks on NIN infrastructure could be an effective way to materially support the protesters, as well as deal a blow to the Chinese-designed apparatus used to suppress them.
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President Trump’s strong statements on the protests and warning of reprisals for attacks on them are being criticized for giving the regime an opportunity to blame America for the uprising while creating a rally-around-the-flag effect that will strengthen support for the mullahs. But just as some of Ronald Reagan’s aides worried that the phrase “tear down this wall” was too provocative, these critics are simply too timid or cowardly to take the proper action to follow up on the rhetoric.
The reality is that the Islamic Republic has blamed America for all their problems since 1979, regardless of what we did or didn’t do. President Trump has stopped giving the mullahs a veto over our actions, and thanks to him, the Iranian people will soon be in a position to tear down the walls that have surrounded them for so long.
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