Analysis: Trump raises the stakes against Iran, but to what end?
By Ishaan Tharoor Ishaan Tharoor Reporter covering foreign affairs, geopolitics and history Email Bio Follow April 9 at 12:59 AM Want smart analysis of the most important news in your inbox every weekday, along with other global reads, interesting ideas and opinions to know? Sign up for the Today’s WorldView newsletter.
Iran’s adversaries — chiefly the United States, Israel and the kingdoms of the Persian Gulf — view the IRGC as the chief vehicle for the regime’s destabilizing activities in the Middle East; what President Trump, in a statement, described as a “global terrorist campaign.” The Quds Force, the IRGC’s overseas special operations arm, tacitly or openly supports a constellation of proxy groups in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
— John Bolton April 8, 2019 “It is fitting that the most dangerous terrorist group in the world, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocents and backed by a massive state apparatus and vast energy wealth, is being designated finally as a foreign terrorist organization,” Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a think tank in Washington that pushes an anti-Iran agenda, told my colleagues.
“This so-called ‘maximum pressure’ strategy demonstrates that not a lot of thought was given about the complexities involved in the designation, such as the fact that the IRGC is not a monolith and is also made up of conscripts who have no choice but to serve,” Holly Dagres, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said to Today’s WorldView. She added that this was part of the reason the national security establishment in Washington long resisted making the move.
The decision “will close yet another potential door for peacefully resolving tensions with Iran,” tweeted Trita Parsi, founder of the National Iranian American Council, which pushes for better ties between the two countries. “Once all doors are closed, and diplomacy is rendered impossible, war will essentially become inevitable.”
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