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How to Keep Up the Economic Pressure Against Iran
(Wall Street Journal) Michael Doran - If global economic pressure forces an early ceasefire with Iran, President Trump still has the tools to ensure that Tehran can never rebuild what it has lost. That will require a new phase of economic warfare. This campaign must block Iran from rebuilding its military capabilities after any ceasefire. With its currency collapsed, its banking sector paralyzed, and its critical defense infrastructure in ruins, Iran's economy stands closer to systemic failure than at any point since 1979. The campaign must ensure this breakdown continues until the regime can no longer reconstitute its coercive power. Curtailing Iran's oil revenues is critical. Every stage of that trade - from shipping and insurance to the ultimate buyers - should face secondary sanctions from the U.S. Washington also must dismantle Iran's shadow banking system which enables an elaborate sanctions-evasion network using shell companies hosted by American allies such as the UAE. Closing these channels and freezing the funds they hold would strike directly at the regime's financial lifeline. Mr. Trump is on the verge of resurrecting the Carter Doctrine: No hostile power should be allowed to use the Persian Gulf as a lever against Western economies. The writer is director of the Middle East Center at the Hudson Institute.