The myriad of crimes of the Assad regime in Syria would have come to an end years ago, if not for the fact the regime is propped up from outside by direct intervention of the Iranian regime, writes Prof Raymond Tanter.

“Tehran contributed substantially to the escalation of those crimes, as well as adding more to the list through its promotion of Shiite terrorist groups as part of pro-Assad fighting forces. Many of these groups have committed human rights abuses against Sunni populations in quantities rivaling those carried out by ISIS, aka Islamic State, against Shiites in Mosul, Iraq,” Prof Tanter wrote in a column for Newsmax on Wednesday.

Prof Tanter, a former senior member of the US National Security Council staff, argued that if French President Emmanuel Macron wishes France to have the “impact it deserves as a Great Power”, he must be willing to align with US President Donald Trump and confront the mullahs’ regime in Iran.

“This is not to say any Western power should be jostling for a new war in the Middle East, and this is certainly not what Washington has been advocating. On June 15, the U.S. Senate voted increased sanctions on the Iranian regime over its ballistic missile program, support for terrorism, and human rights violations.”

The scheduled Trump-Macron meeting in Paris on Friday is a “significant chance for both presidents to encourage renewed commitments to sanctions and diplomatic pressure, e.g., coercive diplomacy.”

“Iran must be countered by exposing its vulnerability and pushing it from areas of foreign influence. Economic penalties against the Islamic Republic can serve a further purpose, namely encouragement of domestic forces that might facilitate a transfer of power out of the hands of the clerical regime into arms of democratic representatives of the Iranian people.”

“The Macron-Trump meeting takes place two weeks after an annual international rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which also took place in Paris, attended by some 100,000 Iranian expats. I was at the rally conducting interviews for this article and heard NCRI President Maryam Rajavi emphasize the Iranian regime is much more vulnerable than is generally acknowledged, because of its overextension in the broader Middle East and hundreds of barely-reported protests taking place daily across the country.”

“Sanctions on the Islamic Republic could be the thing finalizing conditions for regime change from within Iran and subsequent improvement in prospects for Syria and the region as a whole. Iran’s democratic opposition would refrain from subverting Syria, Iraq, and Yemen,” the opinion piece added.

Source » ncr-iran