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The Case for Gasoline Sanctions on Iran

(Wall Street Journal) Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz - Are gasoline sanctions against Iran a bad idea? The White House worries that without plentiful petrol, Iranians might grow angry and rally around the regime. Sanctions hitting the energy sector could also be viewed by Tehran as outright war. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could counter in Iraq and Afghanistan. And to make these sanctions effective, Washington might need to coerce our European allies, whose companies have the lion's share of the gasoline import and import-related insurance business. (Without insurance, tankers never leave harbor.) For sanctions to be a game changer, they have to be crushing. And sanctions must complement the only thing that has so far rattled the regime: the pro-democracy Green Movement. Gasoline and insurance sanctions tied to the cause of democracy might - just possibly - work. Iranians who are fed up with theocracy are certainly not going to embrace it if Obama declares gasoline sanctions the midwife of representative government. If sanctions are waged in the name of the Iranian people, we are much more likely to see Western opinion remain solidly behind them. Mr. Gerecht, a former CIA officer, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Dubowitz is executive director of FDD.
2010-02-23 08:17:52
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