(The Hill) David Albright and Henrik Rasmussen - As thousands of Iranians rising up for freedom and dignity have made clear, now is not the time to revive a nuclear deal that would entrench and legitimize Iran's current regime. European decision-makers soon may follow America's lead in classifying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. This is the exact opposite of what Iran would demand in exchange for a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal. Then there are the Iranian drones in Ukraine, killing civilians and destroying critical energy production infrastructure. The supply of drones violates the UN's missile embargo on Iran, a central tenet of the nuclear deal and its establishing mandate, UN Security Council Resolution 2231. That violation will grow even more menacing if Iran delivers advanced ballistic missiles to Russia. Instead of negotiating with Iran, America and its allies must now take urgent steps to stop the regime's human rights abuses, block its support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and prevent it from building nuclear weapons. For too long, the U.S. and Europe have given the Iranian regime a free pass on human rights violations and regional meddling in the name of keeping Iran from building a nuclear weapon. But this approach has only strengthened the regime while failing to halt its development of advanced nuclear capabilities. The West must draw a firm line in the sand and get serious about preventing Iran from ever possessing nuclear weapons. David Albright is the president of the Institute for Science and International Security and Henrik Rasmussen is the Institute's executive director.
2022-11-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive