JERUSALEM—President Donald Trump’s decision to restore his maximum pressure campaign on the Islamic Republic of Iran jolted the clerical regime in Tehran and established a clean break with the Biden administration’s concessionary policy toward the rogue nation, according to Mideast experts.
Trump also warned the regime on Tuesday that if it carries out his assassination, advisers will ensure that the country is ‘obliterated.’
Trump’s message to the Iranians seemingly got their attention. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that ‘If the main issue is ensuring that Iran does not pursue nuclear weapons, this is achievable and not a difficult matter.’ He also added that ‘maximum pressure is a failed experiment, and trying it again will only lead to another failure.’ He did not respond Trump’s sanction order targeting Iranian oil exports and Tehran’s support for jihadi terrorist organizations.
Yossi Mansharof, an Iran analyst at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy in Israel, told Fox News Digital, ‘Despite oil sanctions on Iran, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveals that Iran’s oil revenue surged to $144 billion in the first three years of Biden’s presidency (January 2021–January 2024), $100 billion more than during the last two years of the Trump administration. ‘
Mansharof continued, ‘While Biden tightened sanctions, he did not enforce them, allowing Iran to continue profiting from oil exports, providing critical support to its economy. This approach reflects a flawed strategy of attempting to engage Ali Khamenei [the supreme leader of Iran] diplomatically while ignoring Iran’s oil smuggling.’
Fox News Digital also reported extensively on Biden’s decision to extend sanctions waivers that enabled repeated payments of $10 billion to be delivered into Iran’s coffers.
Mansharof welcomed the reinstatement of the maximum economic pressure campaign. He warned, however, that in light of Iran’s progress on building a nuclear weapon ‘it is unclear whether this strategy is sufficient.’ He said, ‘Military pressure on Iran is needed to disrupt its activities, send a clear message on its nuclear ambitions, and prevent further destabilizing actions.’
Both the Republican and Democratic administrations have classified Iran’s regime as the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. Trump’s Tuesday signing of the National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) restoring maximum pressure on Iran states its aims are to deny ‘Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon, and countering Iran’s malign influence abroad.’ Iran’s regime funds the U.S.-designated terrorist movements Hamas and Hezbollah.
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs President Dan Diker told Fox News Digital, ‘President Donald Trump’s reimposed maximum pressure campaign to cripple the Iranian regime is another differentiator from the former Biden administration’s defensive and even conciliatory approach to the Iranian regime.’
He added, ‘The first Trump administration maximum pressure that came in parallel with canceling its participation in the ill-fated JCPOA had essentially bankrupted the regime and Trump’s continuation of economic warfare against the regime underscores his commitment to U.S. primacy and power projection in the terror-ridden Middle East short of direct military intervention.’
The JCPOA, an acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was former President Obama’s signature foreign policy deal. It was supposed to slow down Iran’s drive to build an atomic bomb in exchange for massive economic benefits for Iran. In 2018, President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and famously termed it ‘the worst deal in history.’ Trump said at the time of the withdrawal, ‘At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program.’
According to the Trump administration, the JCPOA did not prevent Iran from securing a nuclear weapons device and allowed Tehran to finance global terrorism.
Diker said, ‘Trump will face an Iranian regime octopus that is still extending its terror tentacles across the region, particularly in the Israeli controlled Judea and Samaria (West Bank) while prosecuting charm offensive with European and other powers to fend off the US initiative to strangle the Iranian regime.’
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this story.