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The Maximum Pressure Campaign Against Iran Is Working

The Maximum Pressure Campaign Against Iran Is Working

The BriefGet Up To Speed

The targeted killing of General Qassim Suleimani, one of Iran’s most prominent military leaders, sent shockwaves around the world. The strike came more than a year after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA and launched a series of punishing economic sanctions that have drastically reduced Iran's oil exports and crippled its economy. The administration’s defenders argue that this "maximum pressure" campaign is necessary to protect American interests, quell Tehran’s human rights abuses, and halt Iran's support of terrorist networks across the region. But opponents see maximum pressure as dangerously misguided. They contend that abandoning the JCPOA – a historic diplomatic achievement – increases the risk of war and undermines key allies. Further, critics say, economic sanctions target civilians and fuel anti-American sentiment in Iran and beyond. Is the maximum pressure campaign against Iran working? 

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Background
Four Decades of Conflict with Iran, Explained

"Iran and the U.S. have been enemies since 1979. Why?"

Sunday, January 19, 2020
The Week
The Week Staff
The President's Inbox: Should the United States Maintain Maximum Pressure on Iran?

"U.S. sanctions have hurt the Iranian economy, but the operative question is to what end"

Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Council on Foreign Relations
James M Lindsay
Why Iran is fighting back against Trump’s maximum pressure campaign
"An expert explains Iran’s recent actions."
 
Friday, June 21, 2019
Vox
Alex Ward
US Senate poised to rebuke Trump on Iran
"After Soleimani strike, war powers resolution would seek to limit Trump from escalating military conflicts with Iran."
 
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Aljazeera
William Roberts
For the Motion
After the Deal: A New Iran Strategy

"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers his first public address on the Trump administration’s Iran strategy." 

Monday, May 21, 2018
The Heritage Foundation
Mike Pompeo
Michael Pompeo: Trump administration pressure is weakening Iran's regime

"We look forward to the day we can help bring the Iranians and their neighbors the peace and prosperity they deserve."

Tuesday, August 6, 2019
USA Today
Michael Pompeo
Iran offers Trump an opportunity to rally the world against it
"The theocracy’s most important vulnerability is still its weakening economy, and it is that nerve that Washington should continue pinching. Given this latest Iranian act of terror, the Trump administration may have stumbled on a unique opportunity to multi-lateralize its strategy of maximum pressure."
 
Monday, September 16, 2019
Washington Examiner
Ray Takeyh
US officials say their pressure on Iran is working — and that’s why tensions are getting worse
"Secs. Mike Pompeo and Steve Mnuchin stood by the Trump administration’s strategy and outlined new sanctions."
 
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Vox
Anya van Wagtendonk
Against the Motion
The flaw in Trump’s maximum pressure campaign toward Iran
"History tells us that Iran will not be sanctioned into changing its behavior. A successful policy of leverage comes from collective international pressure, the prospect that negotiations can offer credible economic gains and the threat of meaningful consequences for malign actions."
 
Thursday, August 29, 2019
The Washington Post
Dennis Ross and Dana Stroul
Maximum pressure on Iran is driving us toward war

"A hardline approach from Washington has been met with an equally hardline approach from a Tehran desperate to show it will not be bullied into submission. Escalation is met with escalation. Maximum pressure on Iran is driving us toward war, not toward a mutually agreeable diplomatic deal and certainly not toward peace."

Monday, December 9, 2019
The Hill
Bonnie Kristian
Donald Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran has backfired
"Pulling out of the nuclear deal has emboldened Tehran and exposed Saudi Arabia."
 
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Financial Times
David Gardner
What young Iranians think about the latest US-Iran conflict
“This regime is the worst, but Donald Trump is the worst.”
 
Thursday, January 9, 2020
Vox
Jen Kirby
General Suleimani Strike
Timeline: How The U.S. Came To Strike And Kill A Top Iranian General
"The White House has kept a close hold on many details of what led up to the decision to kill Soleimani. Here's what is known from public accounts."
 
Saturday, January 4, 2020
NPR
Elena Moore and Roberta Rampton
Outrage in Iran After Killing of Suleimani: Here’s What You Need to Know
"Iran said it would essentially abandon its obligations under a land mark nuclear deal, and the Iraqi Parliament voted to expel American troops."
 
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
New York Times
New York Times
The case for killing Qassem Soleimani
"Why Trump’s decision to target the Iranian military commander was the right call, explained by an expert."
 
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Vox
Alex Ward
The case against killing Qassem Soleimani
"Why Trump’s decision to target the Iranian military commander was a mistake, explained by an expert."
 
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Vox
Sean Illing
Poll: Many in US support Trump decision to kill Iran general

"A new poll shows Americans are more likely than not to support President Donald Trump’s decision to order a drone strike that killed an Iranian general, even amid widespread skepticism about his foreign policy overall."

Friday, January 24, 2020
AP
Ben Fox and Emily Swanson
We’re Just Discovering the Price of Killing Soleimani

"Families across half the world are now grieving a consequence that Trump’s ego forbade him to imagine or ponder."

Thursday, January 9, 2020
The Atlantic
David Frum
Economic Sanctions
US sanctions against Iran: A timeline

"Though immediate tensions stem from the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018 -- and Iran's subsequent retaliation -- the conflict goes back decades."

Thursday, February 6, 2020
Fox News Inside
Bradford Betz
Six charts that show how hard US sanctions have hit Iran
"Mr Trump says he wants to apply "maximum pressure" on the government in Tehran to compel it to renegotiate the accord. But Iran's leaders have remained defiant. The substantial impact the sanctions have had on the country is clear, and the economic hardship Iranians are facing helped trigger widespread protests in November 2019 that were brutally quashed by the authorities."
Monday, December 9, 2019
BBC
BBC
U.S. allows time to wind down deals hit by fresh Iran sanctions
"The United States imposed more sanctions on Iran on Friday in retaliation for its missile attack on U.S. forces in Iraq last week and vowed to tighten the economic screws if Tehran continued “terrorist” acts or pursued a nuclear bomb. The targets of the sanctions included Iran’s manufacturing, mining and textile sectors as well as senior Iranian officials who Washington said were involved in the Jan. 8 attack on military bases housing U.S. troops."
 
 
Thursday, January 16, 2020
Reuters
Trump Has Made Sanctions a Path to Strikes
"Economic measures can de-escalate tensions, but not if used crudely."
 
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Foreign Policy
Elizabeth Rosenberg and Neil Bhatiya
Trump vows new sanctions on Iran in bid to escalate ‘maximum pressure’ campaign
"President Trump’s vow Wednesday to slap new sanctions on Iran probably would target a broader range of Iranian commercial institutions and government officials, deepening the Middle Eastern nation’s spiraling economic crisis. But with the economy already convulsed by earlier U.S. enforcement actions, any new financial punishments are likely to be largely symbolic, according to sanctions specialists and experts on Iran."
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
The Washington Post
David J Lynch
How Iran's Economy Has Withstood Years Of U.S. Sanctions
"The Trump administration has placed layers of tough sanctions on Iran for years, but it has yet to bring the economy to its knees. That's because Iran has a big economy that's used to hard times."
 
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
NPR
Jackie Northam
Report: Iran Sanctions Cost US Economy up to $175 Billion

"U.S. sanctions on Iran have carried a significant cost to the U.S. economy, a new report published by the National Iranian American Council today finds. Losing Billions – The Cost of Iran Sanctions to the U.S. Economy reveals that between 1995 and 2012, the U.S. sacrificed at least $135 billion and as much as $175 billion in potential export revenue to Iran."

Monday, July 14, 2014
National Iranian American Council
NIAC
Days before Europeans warned Iran of nuclear deal violations, Trump secretly threatened to impose 25% tariff on European autos if they didn’t
"A week before Germany, France and Britain formally accused Iran of breaching the 2015 nuclear deal, the Trump administration issued a private threat to the Europeans that shocked officials in all three countries. If they refused to call out Tehran and initiate an arcane dispute mechanism in the deal, the United States would impose a 25 percent tariff on European automobiles, the Trump officials warned, according to European officials familiar with the conversations."
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
The Washington Post
John Hudson and Souad Mekhennet
JCPOA
Here's what's in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that the country withdrew from amid heightened tensions with the US
"The Iran deal was one of the crowning diplomatic achievement’s of former President Barack Obama’s tenure, but has continued to be a divisive issue in Washington since it came to fruition in 2015.
Withdrawing the US from the deal was one of the biggest and most controversial foreign policy decisions Trump has made yet."
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Business Insider
John Haltiwanger
President Donald J. Trump is Ending United States Participation in an Unacceptable Iran Deal

"The Iran Deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into."

Tuesday, May 8, 2018
The White House
Donald Trump
Explainer: How does Iran nuclear deal's dispute mechanism work?
"EU nations prompt a mechanism bringing closer the potential collapse of the deal and the reimposition of UN sanctions."
 
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Aljazeera
Al Jazeera
Domestic Unrest in Iran
What the Latest Iran Protests Mean for the Regime’s Control

"U.S. President Donald Trump has said that his campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran isn’t aimed at precipitating regime change there. That hasn’t stopped him and his aides from telegraphing their hopes for it."

Thursday, January 16, 2020
Bloomberg
Golnar Motevalli
Iran’s Leadership Works to Heal Rifts Opened Amid Protests, U.S. Pressure
"After downing of Ukrainian jetliner, establishment strives to restore unity amid awareness that differences could jeopardize regime."
 
Monday, January 27, 2020
Wall Street Journal
Sune Engel Rasmussen
The Anger and Anguish Fueling Iran's Protests

"Iran is a society deeply polarized between those who hate the regime and those still loyal to its rigid revolutionary ideology." 

Wednesday, January 15, 2020
The New Yorker
Robin Wright
With Brutal Crackdown, Iran Is Convulsed by Worst Unrest in 40 Years
"What started as a protest over a surprise increase in gasoline prices turned into widespread demonstrations met with a systematic repression that left at least 180 people dead."
 
Sunday, December 1, 2019
New York Times
Farnaz Fassihi and Rick Gladstone
Iranian Funding of Terror
How terrorism helps — and hurts — Iran

The U.S. drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the paramilitary Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), highlighted the centrality of support for terrorist, insurgent and other substate groups in Iran’s foreign policy. The Quds Force helps arm, train and otherwise support numerous insurgent and rebel groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, the Palestinian territories and other areas, and its activities are part of why the United States has long labeled Iran the “world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.”

Monday, January 6, 2020
Brookings Institution
Daniel L Byman
State Department report finds Iran is top state sponsor of terror

On Iran, the report said that country "remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015, providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world."

Thursday, June 2, 2016
CNN
Ryan Browne
President Donald J. Trump Is Holding the Iranian Regime Accountable for Its Global Campaign of Terrorism

"The Iranian regime is the leading state sponsor of terror. It exports dangerous missiles, fuels conflicts across the Middle East, and supports terrorist proxies."

Monday, April 8, 2019
The White House
Donald Trump
The Growing Obsession With Linking Iran to Terrorism
"Iran has not posed a serious terror threat to the United States since the 1980s. Sunni terrorism, on the other hand, has."
 
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
The New Republic
Jefferson Morley