Iran’s War of Survival: Why Economic Pressure May Matter More Than Bombardment

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  Written by Mehdi Oghbai Six-minute read More than four months into the confrontation involving Iran and the United States, the conflict appears to have entered a decisive phase. The central question is no longer simply how much military damage either side can inflict. It is whether Tehran can turn prolonged confrontation into a political instrument of survival — or whether sustained economic isolation will expose vulnerabilities that military strikes alone have failed to exploit. The Iranian regime’s leadership has sought to portray its posture around the Strait of Hormuz as evidence of strength and strategic leverage. By threatening shipping and placing pressure on one of the world’s most important energy corridors, Tehran appears to calculate that it can eventually force Western governments to choose economic stability over confrontation. At the same time, the political and military restructuring described inside Iran points towards preparation for continued confrontation rathe...
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Dispute Regarding Trump’s Maximum Pressure Strategy on Iran Regime

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By Mohammad Sadat Khansari
It was reported last week that there is an internal dispute in the Trump administration with regards to the sanctions on Iran. European leaders have put pressure on the United States to keep Iran in contact with the international marketplace.
President Donald Trump and several of his officials have been very clear on the fact that they want to put intense economic pressure on Iran. However, there are several Treasury Department officials that seem to have been influenced by Europe’s stance to keep Iran connected to SWIFT.


This is causing a lot of tension and many are keen to keep up with the hard stance towards Iran. Senator Ted Cruz has stepped in with new legislation to ensure that the main sanctions are not bypassed. His legislation would apparently target the board members of SWIFT that are allowing Iran to use the banking system.
The SWIFT banking system allows Iran to carry out cross-border transactions and it has been a lifeline for Iran in its dealings with the West.
Senator Cruz’s bill, according to a reliable source, will give the U.S. President further ways to target banks in Iran with regards to their facilitation of the financing of terrorist activities. It would allow sanctions to be imposed on those that aid Iran in its circumventing of U.S. sanctions – namely in assisting with the development of a cryptocurrency.
It is believed that there are a number of other senators that support Senator Cruz’s bill including Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Tom Cotton – two supporters of Trump’s tough approach to Iran.
A congressional staffer that is familiar with the Cruz legislation and the sanctions on Iran said: “President Trump told the Treasury Department to put maximum pressure on Iran, including the congressional sanctions around SWIFT. If they refuse to implement the president's directive, then Congress will have to act. Iran, banking, and sanctions touch so many different areas that something like the Cruz bill could and will be attached to just about everything.”
President Trump has been an outspoken critic of Iran since before taking office. He promised that he would scrap the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and he identified the Iranian regime as the biggest threat to peace and security in the Middle East. He criticised his predecessor’s approach to Iran and has been adamant that a tough approach would bring results.
Former President Barack Obama led policies of appeasement towards Iran, promising that it would make the regime become more moderate. His policies failed because the Iranian regime was emboldened – it knew it could get away will anything.
Trump is convinced that taking the opposite approach will be more effective and so far he has been right. He will not allow the Treasury Department to undermine his strategy and he is certain that cutting Iran off from the SWIFT network is crucial. His maximum pressure strategy cannot be undermined by administration officials that want to follow in the steps of the Europeans to create loopholes.
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