iran sanctions

The U.S. president never could grasp that shielding Turkey’s Halkbank for Erdogan would make Iranian sanctions evasion easier.

This week’s escalation of tensions by Tehran looks like blackmail to force Biden to abandon sanctions—and give up leverage over the regime.

In 2020, the Trump administration sought to bury the Iran nuclear deal for good. Biden is poised to breathe new life into the pact. 

Insisting that Iran must abandon its missile program could fall into the hardliners’ trap and make a new agreement impossible.

Moving quickly to resurrect the JCPOA, as Biden seems set to do, would start his presidency with a hugely divisive controversy.

Despite reports of a major Chinese-Iranian trade deal, Beijing won’t jeopardize the possibility of better relations with Washington in order to cozy up to Tehran.

Moderates will lose the June 2021 presidential election in Iran unless there is a new agreement and sanctions relief—and the United States can forget diplomacy if hardliners win.

A State Department assessment warned the Syrian regime is worsening Lebanon’s economic collapse.

Israeli officials should urge the new administration to maintain U.S. economic leverage over Iran while avoiding the personal vendettas and public policy feuds of the Obama era.

“We don’t need a cheering section,” said Trump’s U.N ambassador. But Washington does need international compliance to make snapback sanctions work.

Washington’s reliance on sanctions and maximum pressure will make it harder to strike a new deal constraining Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Maximum pressure has not destroyed the Iranian economy, and Tehran is now sharing its lessons in resilience with Nicolás Maduro’s beleaguered regime in Caracas.

Washington has no right to impose snapback sanctions on Tehran because it is no longer a participant in the Iran nuclear deal.

After a humiliating defeat at the U.N. Security Council, Washington will seek snapback sanctions to sabotage what’s left of the nuclear deal. Britain, France, and Germany can still keep it alive until after the U.S. election.

Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, the country is struggling to stay afloat.

His administration wants to trigger the JCPOA’s snapback mechanism, but he probably can’t do that from the outside.

Tehran’s new strategic partnership with Beijing will give the Chinese a strategic foothold and strengthen Iran’s economy and regional clout.

Two years after Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran has cut in half the time it would need to produce enough weapons-grade fuel for a nuclear bomb.

The Islamic Republic could face a devastating second wave of coronavirus infections, but keeping the economy closed down without a safety net would have likely led to unrest and collapse.