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U.S. Should Not Provide Sanctions Relief for Terrorism

(Foundation for Defense of Democracies) Matthew Zweig, Alireza Nader, and Richard Goldberg- As the U.S. looks to rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, Iran is likely to pressure the Biden administration to provide broad sanctions relief, including to entities targeted since 2015 for financing terrorism. Undermining the global terrorism sanctions regime is not a price the U.S. should be willing to pay. Iran has been designated as a state sponsor of terrorism since 1984 and is currently labeled by the State Department as "the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism" for its financial and material support to terrorist organizations responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. A 2018 article co-authored by former Obama administration senior official Dennis Ross argued: "The sanctions relief provided under the JCPOA should not be interpreted as a blanket immunity for Iranian officials, banks and other government instrumentalities to expand their illicit activities. If such a person or entity is found to be connected to the Revolutionary Guard, terrorism, missile proliferation and human rights abuses, it most certainly can and should be subject to sanctions." Matthew Zweig and Alireza Nader are senior fellows at FDD, where Richard Goldberg is a senior advisor.
2021-02-25 00:00:00
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