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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/01/02/iran-protests-trump-threats-maximum-pressure/
How to Make This Time Different in Iran
(Washington Post) Editorial - Many protests have been crushed over the decades in Iran. If the administration wants this time to be different, it will need to oversee a patient, sustained campaign of maximum pressure against the government. Iran is deeply degraded. The country's regional proxies are in disarray. Israel has shown an ability to inflict pain deep inside Iran's borders - hitting critical military facilities and targeting nuclear scientists. UN sanctions went into effect in September, and the rial is at a record low. Spontaneous street protests have grown every day. The optimal strategy is to economically squeeze the regime as hard as possible at this moment of maximum vulnerability. More stringent enforcement of existing oil sanctions would go a long way. President Joe Biden undermined the progress Trump had made in his first term on maximum pressure and strengthened Iran as he sought to revive an obviously dead nuclear deal. Beyond the moral case, hard-nosed realism makes clear that weakening Iran is the right move. The country props up Maduro in Venezuela and supplies the Russian war machine in Ukraine. The reality is that Trump is comfortable intervening abroad when he senses weakness and an opportunity to advance American interests. The Islamic Republic won't last forever, and perhaps it will survive this bout of discontent, but squeezing consistently will have positive knock-on effects for U.S. policy far beyond the Middle East.