On Tuesday, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to reinstate a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.
The preamble is clear and direct. Since its inception in 1979 as a revolutionary theocracy, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has declared its hostility to the United States and its allies and partners. Iran remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terror and has aided Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, the Taliban, al-Qa’ida, and other terrorist networks. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is itself a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.
The memorandum defines the US policy towards Iran, and is aimed at far more than stopping the regime from pursuing a nuclear weapon. It also aims to deny Iran nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles; that Iran’s network and campaign of regional aggression be neutralized; that the IRGC and its surrogates be disrupted, degraded, or denied access to the resources that sustain their destabilizing activities; and to counter Iran’s aggressive development of missiles and other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities.