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The Next Administration Should Reinstate Diplomatic and Economic Pressure to Constrain Iran's Support for Terror Proxies
(Economist-UK-Nov. 2, 2024) Rep. Michael Waltz and Prof. Matthew Kroenig - Naive attempts to engage Iran and prematurely ease sanctions provided Iran with resources to bankroll terror throughout the region and reduced the chance of a nuclear deal. Instead of renewing economic pressure and fully backing Israel's military response to Iran and its terror proxies after the Oct. 7 attacks, the White House restrained Israel and the Pentagon due to overwrought fears of "escalation." Undue passivity only invited more aggression. In the Middle East, calling for a ceasefire would, in effect, leave Hamas terrorists in power in Gaza. The next administration should, as Mr. Trump argued, "let Israel finish the job" and "get it over with fast" against Hamas. They should put a credible military option on the table to make clear to the Iranians that America would stop them building nuclear weapons, and reinstate a diplomatic and economic pressure campaign to stop them and to constrain their support for terror proxies. Washington should maintain a military presence in the region. Rep. Michael Waltz is a Green Beret veteran of the war in Afghanistan and a former White House counterterrorism-policy adviser. Matthew Kroenig is Vice President of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, a professor at Georgetown University and a former Pentagon strategist.