Trump's Executive Order on Iran is even better than being reported

Yesterday, President 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 Iranian Government, including the IRGC, is using agents and cyber-enabled means to target United States nationals living in the United States and other countries around the world for attacks, including assault, kidnapping, and murder.  Iran has also directed its proxy groups, including Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization, to embed sleeper cells in the Homeland to be activated in support of this terrorist activity.   

It is refreshing to see such clarity.

The memorandum defines the US policy towards Iran, and it is aimed at far more than stopping the regime from pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Section 1.  Policy.  It is the policy of the United States that Iran be denied a nuclear weapon 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. 

The language of the policy is almost identical to that of Trump's previous national security presidential  memorandum 11 on Iran from 2018.

Here, the administration is making a clear statement of US goals and aims and the orders support those aims. 

Interestingly, I cannot find anything indicating that President Biden rescinded NSPM-11, although groups like J-Street urged him to do so. But he obviously ignored it by loosening up the Trump sanctions.

The Biden administration strove for nuance. It tried to send complex messages by wordsmithing every statement. However, Iran and much of the world do not understand nuance in the way it is intended - Iran understood only that the Biden administration had given it a lifeline, and any statements chiding Iran were ignored, since actions speak louder than words. 

The Trump administration does not understand nuance either. Meaning, it is speaking in a language that Iran and other players understand quite well. 

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