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Moving Forward on Iran: A Policy for the Next U.S. Administration

(Foreign Affairs) Aaron David Miller and Richard Sokolsky - The Islamic Republic of Iran is a cruel and nasty regime - a serial human rights abuser at home and a promoter of policies in the region that are clearly at odds with many U.S. interests and those of its partners and allies. And it would be foolhardy to conclude that the nuclear agreement with Iran will be the last that the world sees of its flirtation with nuclear weapons. An effective approach to Iran requires containing it when its ambitions for regional hegemony present a threat to vital U.S. interests. That means defending allies when their territorial integrity and independence are threatened by Iranian military attack, using force to prevent Iranian efforts to impede the flow of maritime traffic in the Persian Gulf, preventing and responding to Iranian or Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks against U.S. facilities and military and civilian personnel, and using force to prevent Tehran from breaking out of the nuclear agreement in violation of its commitments. Maintaining a tough sanctions regime will be an indispensable tool in supplementing a credible policy of containment. Aaron David Miller is a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. Richard Sokolsky is a senior associate in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
2016-11-09 00:00:00
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