U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Nathan Sales and Assistant Secretary of Diplomatic Security Mike Evanoff have announced new multi-million-dollar bounties for the capture of high-ranking members of Hamas and Hizbullah. The officials also reiterated the Trump administration’s commitment placing tougher sanctions on the Iranian regime.
The announcement indicates that the new U.S. sanctions involves actions to curtail the fundraising efforts of Hamas and Hizbullah – widely considered terrorist organizations. The sanctions have also focused on punishing and preventing humanitarian violations, such as terrorists’ use of human shields to prevent retaliation.
“The actions we’re announcing today are one more step in our campaign to build the toughest sanctions regime ever imposed on Iran,” reiterated Sales, before reassuring that “more sanctions are coming, and they will continue until Iran and its proxies change their behavior.”
The recent economic upheavals in Iran are a sign that the sanctions are successfully ratcheting up pressure on the regime, but analysts are less certain about whether they will cause Tehran to alter its regional tactics and support for terrorist groups.
“My guess is that Iran will not stop. It will continue to transfer money as much as possible,” Meir Litvak, director of the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, told The Media Line.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei disagree over how much money should be funneled to these organizations, Litvak explained. “The latter wants to continue support as much as possible, while the president is less enthusiastic because he feels the country’s financial predicament more directly.”
Iran’s economic problems will become more severe, but this does not mean the regime will halt payments to its proxies, he added.
“The Iranian public does not know how much money is being transferred to these groups, but it is nonetheless criticizing Iranian support for these organizations. In a country like Iran, it’s too difficult to say whether popular protests will change policy. In the short-term, the sanctions could rally the people behind the government, but in the long-term they might garner change,” Litvak concluded.
Dr. Nir Boms, a research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, told The Media Line that the Trump administration decided it needs to take a different line and not ignore the extent of Iranian influence in the region.
“For the U.S., the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] was not a satisfactory agreement… The Americans are now saying they have to pile on real weight behind these sanctions,” Boms said.
“The Iranian strategy in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, has been the creation of proxies. We’ve seen in Syria the recruitment of locals to Hizbullah and the creation of new militias, all paid for by Iran, a country in deep financial crisis.”
The JCPOA was based a compromise involving more focus on the nuclear issue, while letting other matters fall out of sight, Boms explained.
“You heard very little from the American administration on human rights violations in Iran, for example. And we heard very little about sanctions on particular Iranian officials. This administration, however, eventually said that ‘if you want to deal with it, we need to levy sanctions.’”
The administration’s stance goes hand-in-hand with its unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA, Boms concluded.
“This decision is more comprehensive, and it really means that the reason for withdrawing from the JCPOA was not only because it was not the best deal, but because it did not address a host of other issues.”
According to a U.S. State Department briefing on the issue, “Iran spends $700 million a year on Hizbullah. It gives another $100 million to various Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas. Combined with the money that Tehran provides to other terrorists, the total bill comes close to $1 billion a year.”
Source » themedialine