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An Iran Containment Strategy Takes Shape
(Washington Post) Editorial - After six months of on-again, off-again bombing in Iran, punctuated by futile efforts to negotiate a grand bargain with the regime, President Donald Trump is returning to the more defensible strategy of economic containment. The Trump administration has decided to squeeze the mullahs by cutting them off from the rest of the world. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened secondary sanctions on foreign individuals, corporations and financial institutions that continue to do business with Tehran. Even if the administration succeeds in sharply constricting Iranian exports, Trump needs to be realistic about what this can accomplish. Ratcheting up pressure appears extremely unlikely to compel the hard-liners of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to surrender. Sanctions have a poor record when it comes to hastening regime change. Comprehensive enforcement is elusive, and Iran is a practiced evader. The immediate goal of a policy of containment is to make an already battered Iran weaker so that it's less capable of threatening its neighbors and developing nuclear weapons. As the vise tightens, Tehran's new leaders will probably lash out militarily. Trump will need to respond forcefully to such attacks.