By Struan Stevenson Conflagration engulfs the Middle East, with the Israel-Hamas war having gone on for more than a year now, and many Israeli hostages are still being held in deplorable conditions by Hamas terrorists. In Northern Israel, constant missile and rocket attacks by Hezbollah led to the mass evacuation of more than 70,000 Israelis from their homes in 2024 and to the inevitable military retaliation by the Israel Defense Forces, as they crossed the border into Southern Lebanon. Israeli missiles are raining down on key Hezbollah targets in Beirut. The assassination of Hezbollah’s terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, a seismic event, shattered his close friend and ally Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader and Hezbollah’s main sponsor. Nasrallah’s successor, Hashem Saffieddine, was also killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut within hours of being nominated for the Hezbollah leadership role and before the funeral of his predecessor had even taken place. Es...
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Will diplomacy alone work with the Iranian regime?
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By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
Various approaches can be used to counter threats posed by a rogue state. But is diplomacy alone adequate to deal with the Iranian regime? US President Joe Biden still believes that diplomacy is the best policy to counter and deal with Iran. He said on July 14: “I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome. We will continue to work with Israel to counter other threats from Iran throughout the region, including support for terrorism, a ballistic missile program that continues, and the proliferation of weapons to terrorist and proxies like Hezbollah.”
The Biden administration has adopted this soft policy toward the theocratic establishment of Iran since it assumed office in January 2021. Appeasement, conciliation and concessions have appeared to be part of this diplomatic route from the outset. The Biden administration first declared to the Iranian government that it not only wanted to remove nuclear-related sanctions, but also that it was willing to lift some of the non-nuclear-related curbs if the nuclear deal was revived between Tehran and the P5+1 — China, France, Russia, the UK and US, plus Germany. Later, this was followed by significant concessions toward one of Iran’s main proxies, the Houthis. Despite evidence that the Iranian regime was delivering sophisticated weapons to the militia, the Biden administration suspended some of the anti-terrorism sanctions on the Houthis and, soon after, revoked the designation of the militia as a terrorist group. What was the outcome? This move, of course, was a significant victory for the Iranian leaders and the Houthis, but it came at a huge cost for countries such as Saudi Arabia, which is the main target of the Houthis’ rocket and drone attacks. In fact, only a few days after removing the Houthis from the list of foreign terrorist organizations, the State Department had to call on the militia to “immediately cease attacks impacting civilian areas inside Saudi Arabia and to halt any new military offensives inside Yemen.” By removing Iran’s proxy from the terrorist list and cutting off US support to confront the militia group, the Biden administration emboldened and empowered the Houthis and its paymaster, the Iranian regime, which in turn, ratcheted up the smuggling and delivery of weapons to the militia.
On Jan. 17, 2022, the Houthis launched a military attack on the UAE, blowing up three oil tanker trucks in Abu Dhabi and killing three people. In February 2021 alone, the Houthis fired more than 40 drones and missiles at Saudi Arabia. Even Western officials had to acknowledge the escalation. As a senior US defense official told NBC News on condition of anonymity: “We’re certainly aware of a troubling increase in Houthi cross-border attacks from a variety of systems, including cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).” But the Biden administration’s diplomatic overtures with the Iranian regime did not end there. In June 2021, the White House lifted sanctions on three former Iranian officials and several energy companies. Then, it announced that it was also considering lifting sanctions against the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. In addition, other appeasement efforts have included turning a blind eye to the regime’s destructive behavior in the region and beyond, which includes smuggling weapons to the Houthis, shipping oil and weapons to Venezuela, harassing the US Navy and targeting US bases in Iraq. Iran’s shipment of weapons to Venezuela have included advanced arms such as “171 guided anti-tank missiles, eight surface-to-air missiles, land attack cruise missile components, anti-ship cruise missile components, thermal weapon optics and other components for missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).” Other violations by the Iranian regime have also been disregarded. The ruling mullahs of Iran violate US sanctions and UN security resolutions without facing the consequences. For example, shipments of weapons to the Houthis in Yemen are a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2140, which states: “Obligation to freeze all funds, other financial assets and economic resources that are owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by the individuals or entities designated by the committee, or by individuals or entities acting on their behalf or at their direction, or by entities owned or controlled by them; no funds, financial assets or economic resources to be made available to or for the benefit of such individuals or entities.” In conclusion, history has repeatedly shown that pursuing diplomacy alone with the Iranian regime will ultimately fail. The Biden administration’s diplomatic strategy has led only to a more aggressive regime in Tehran, which is now extremely close to acquiring nuclear weapons. If Biden insists on employing diplomacy with the Iranian regime, he must at least follow the approach advocated by former US leader Theodore Roosevelt: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
• Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh
Written by Mahmoud Hakamian Two-minute read On Sunday morning, April 14, the Iranian regime launched an unprecedented attack against Israel, escalating tensions in the Middle East. Despite military experts’ assessments that the attack failed, it underscores Iran’s role as a focal point of regional conflict. The October 7th attack sent shockwaves globally. Despite ample evidence implicating the Iranian regime, Western governments dismissed Tehran’s involvement, adhering to a flawed appeasement policy toward the primary state sponsor of terrorism. They disregarded explicit statements from Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commanders boasting about their direct role in the attack. For decades, the Iranian Resistance has urged the international community to adopt a resolute stance against the Iranian regime’s aggression and terrorism. Despite persistent calls, the failed appeasement policy of the West allowed Tehran to escalate its belligerent activities, including ...
By DR. MAJID RAFIZADEH President Donald Trump will make a decision on whether the US will leave or stick with the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, by May 12. It has been almost three years since the nuclear accord was reached between the Islamic Republic and the UN Security Council’s five permanent members — Russia, the UK, China, France, and the US — plus Germany (the P5+1). Since the JCPOA’s implementation day on Jan. 16, 2016, the Iranian regime has been receiving various benefits that can be divided into four categories. Based on the terms of the JCPOA, four rounds of the United Nations Security Council’s economic sanctions against Tehran were lifted immediately. The regime also received unilateral sanctions relief from individual countries in exchange for halting its nuclear activities and dismantling some sections of its nuclear program. For instanc...
Link to call signing: https://www.change.org/p/un-secretary-general-call-for-justice-for-the-1988-iran-massacre Let's move our hands to change our world In the age of consciousness, and in the 21st century, brutality and barbarism must be stopped, this is not worthy of humanity. At the first step, you should be the center of this cruelty and the godfather of crime and murder, terrorism and fundamentalism that nobody is part of Iran's terrorist government. The fact is that the killing and execution of political and conscientious prisoners in public or in prisons is secretly in its astronomical dimensions on the coin of killing innocent people abroad by this regime. The issuance of terrorism and the support of fundamentalist and terrorist groups in this regime is institutionalized and is part of the constitution. The crimes committed by perpetrators and groups affiliated with this corrupt and expansionist state in Syria and Lebanon and Iraq ...
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