ANALYSIS: Understanding Iran’s missile belligerence

  The countries of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen have suffered the most of Iran’s belligerence, and the full eviction of the IRGC footprints from these states would be the next necessary step forward against Tehran’s regime.

By Heshmat AlaviSpecial to Al Arabiya EnglishMonday, 31 July 2017

Iran has recently witnessed increasing pressures from both sides of the Atlantic, especially over its ballistic missile ambitions. After weeks of deliberations, the US Congress passed initiatives imposing unprecedented restrictions on Tehran.

Just one day after Iran test-launched a satellite-carrying rocket, the Europeans on Friday joined their American allies in sharpening their tone on Iran’s mullahs, demanding an immediate cessation.

The US Treasury Department also responded sharply, imposing even further sanctions on six companies owned or supervised by the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, known to play a central role in Tehran’s ballistic drive. All their US assets have been frozen and US citizens barred from dealing with the six firms.

As expected, Iran has continued its refusal to cooperate. “We will continue with full power our missile program,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi to state broadcaster IRIB.

The differentiation

A logical conclusion would be for Iran is to yield back on its ballistic missile program. Yet this isn’t necessarily the case for Tehran.

We are dealing with a completely pragmatic regime, moving its pawns very carefully, with the utmost calculus to the very end. Iran needs to maintain face on two different issues:

1) While not understood by many in the West, the mullahs desperately need to maintain a straight face before its already dwindling social base.
2) Iran will continue to set the stakes high for the international community – meaning continue their missile program – until pressures corner it in the ring, similar to 2013 when sanctions forced Iran into the nuclear negotiations.

Iran needs to undergo missile tests similar to those seen Thursday, claiming to seek placing satellites into orbit. Whereas it is common knowledge the same technology is used to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles enabling Iran to threaten targets in mainland United States.

Foul objectives

While Iran abandoned any intention to place a man into space, it continues to seek similar objectives even despite reports of the recent “Simorgh” test-launch failure last week.

As Iran’s ballistic missile program is known to have received huge amounts of support from the North Koreans, Iran itself is known for parties abroad through providing missile armament.

The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen launched a ballistic missile Thursday fired targeting the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, only to be shot down, according to the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Tehran proxies. This shows both the threats posed by Iran’s ballistic missile program, as such arsenal can be provided to dangerous groups abroad, and to what extent Iran will go.

Further to the west in the flashpoint Middle East region reports also indicate of Iran building and launching underground missile production factories in Lebanon. This is a new form of exporting instability and extremism for Iran, and these sites are currently controlled completely by the Lebanese Hezbollah, Tehran’s main terrorist offspring.

On a side-note of Iran’s missile ambitions, L. Todd Reed explains in The Washington Times, “The argument could be made that the consequence of the nuclear deal was Iran being able to buy sophisticated weapons and Russia having the cash to stay in the Middle East as a military power.”

A new era

What is terrifying Iran, however, is the new and unexpected landscape it finds itself in as the Trump administration is busy overhauling the highly flawed Obama foreign policy vis-à-vis Tehran.

Senior Iranian regime officials were heard threatening attacks against American bases prior to last week’s unparalleled sanctions mainly targeting the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Both chambers of the US Congress passed their bills with veto-proof authority.

Iran has also sensed this change in language by the West and has begun to act accordingly. A recent piece in The Hill best explains this transition:

“A mere shift in tone from the [Trump] administration already appears to have affected Iran’s calculus. While Iran has continued missile and space launch vehicle testing, it has not launched another nuclear capable, medium-range ballistic missile since being put “on notice” by the White House in February. In Syria, Iranian-backed forces have not targeted the U.S. military outright, even though the US twice downed Iranian-made Shahed-129 drones.”

The Europeans have also shown signs of significant changes. While Iran has taken advantage of its relations with the Green Continent to close economic agreements, the European Troika – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – also joined their American allies in condemning Iran’s recent rocket test as “inconsistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231.”

Neither destabilizing impact of Iran’s ballistic missile ambitions on the Middle East, nor the IRGC’s role in this regard can be denied. It is also true that Iran took advantage of Obama’s disastrous appeasement/engagement policy to advance its missile arsenal to the utmost extent.

Despite the new US sanctions restricting and blacklisting the IRGC being long overdue, needed now is for the Trump administration to fully implement such actions against Iran. There is no more room for reservations that have to this day provided Iran paths to bypass and derail international community efforts.

The countries of Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen have suffered the most of Iran’s belligerence, and the full eviction of the IRGC footprints from these states would be the next necessary step forward against Tehran’s regime.

Last Update: Monday, 31 July 2017 KSA 10:31 - GMT 07:31

Source:ANALYSIS: Understanding Iran’s missile belligerence

JUSTICE SEEKING MOVEMENT HAS SHAKEN UP THE REGIME RELYING ON MASSACRE- MARYAM RAJAVI’S MESSAGE ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1988 MASSACRE

All the major cases of carnage and repression in the past quarter of a century in Iran are linked to the person of Khamenei and his corrupt offices.

Fellow compatriots, 29 years ago on these days, Khomeini, the century’s most ruthless murderer, launched the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners affiliated with the PMOI and other dissident groups.

He sought to uproot the resistance movement in a bid to preserve his own rule. He wanted to do something that no one would ever again think of change and of freedom. He found his answer in the hasty annihilation of the PMOI and all those who persisted on the ideal of freedom.

In the face of such unprecedented brutality, the PMOI prisoners took pride in going to the gallows in the thousands. They registered themselves in the historical conscience of their nation as symbols of dedication and loyalty to the cause of freedom. And the history of Iran was blessed with the light and hope of their unwavering resistance.

Throughout the years, their blood has continued to run in the veins of society, provoking the spirit of rebellion and protest in the struggle against the tyrannical clerical regime.

Our endless salutes to all the prisoners massacred in 1988 who persisted on their positions against the Velayat-e Faqih under interrogation and stood up for freedom. Their struggle and resistance has been battering the regime since then until now.
Khomeini concealed their names, but they are the most famous men and women of Iran’s modern history. The regime hid their graves, but they have remained the most spirited and obvious members of the nation fighting in the field. Long years pass since they kissed the gallows, but they continue to sing the crimson anthem of freedom.

My fellow compatriots and courageous youths, 
Last year, on July 28, 2016, the families of martyrs and political prisoners issued a statement announcing a campaign commemorating the victims of the 1988 massacre. The movement demanding justice for the victims of the massacre is now one-year-old. During this period, the campaign energized by the victims’ sacrifice and our nation’s will to achieve freedom has time and again shaken up the clerical regime that relies on massacre. 
It has brought about broad-based knowledge in Iranian society particularly among the youth about the dreadful crimes committed by the Velayat-e Faqih regime. It shattered the mullahs’ conspiracy of silence to cover up the 1988 massacre and compelled the ruling clerics to confess to their involvement in this crime against humanity.

The justice seeking movement dealt a heavy setback to Khamenei who had nominated a death-commission member for presidency. It defeated the regime in its totality in the elections sham, as the nation embraced the movement’s slogan of “no to the executioner, no to the charlatan.” The campaign also resuscitated this case internationally while it had been silenced by the western governments’ policy of appeasement. 
These efforts led to the point where the UN Secretary General noted the 1988 massacre in his annual report this year.

This year-long campaign proved that the Velayat-e Faqih regime is extremely vulnerable with regards to the slaughter on which the pillars of its rule rest. As a result, every effort by the mullahs to incriminate the PMOI immerses them even further in a quagmire of disgrace.

Since the outset, when the news of this massacre began to leak out of prisons, the Iranian Resistance has endeavored to expose this crime on the international level. In a letter to the UN Secretary General at the time, Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian Resistance, wrote, “The international community must compel the regime to answer questions about the identities of all those executed, the date, place and manner of executions and their place of burial. It must introduce those in charge and those who carried out this major crime.”

In the past year, too, supporters of the Iranian Resistance risked their own lives to collect the previously unannounced names of victims of the massacre and addresses of their graves, as well as information about members of the death commissions in the provinces.

I thank all of them and everyone who joined the justice seeking movement over the past year. I thank all the youths and students who voiced their demand for justice for victims of the 1988 massacre at any opportunity, and the prisoners who supported the movement under the most difficult circumstances.

Nevertheless, everything done so far has been only the first step. The Iranian people and Resistance will not relent until those in charge of the massacre of political prisoners, namely those who hold the highest positions of authority in this regime, face justice. 
In the start of the second year of the movement calling for justice, I urge everyone to help further expand the movement. This is part and parcel with the Iranian people’s quest for freedom and the overthrow of the regime in its entirety. Accordingly, 
1. I call on all the courageous youths of this land to stage protests to compel the regime’s leaders to publish a complete list of names of those massacred, addresses of their graves, and names of those in charge of the slaughter.

2. I call on the families of martyrs and political prisoners to gather at the gravesites of their martyrs and in this way force the clerical regime to recognize their trampled right to hold memorial ceremonies for their heroic children.

3. I call on my fellow compatriots to actively participate in the national campaign to collect the information of the martyrs, find their tombs and expose the mullahs and murderers involved in this crime.

4. I call on young seminary students and the clergy who have distanced themselves from the ominous regime of the velayat-e faqih to openly condemn the massacre and distance themselves from Khomeini and the inhuman and anti-Islamic velayat-e faqih regime.

5. I call on parliaments, political parties, human rights organizations, religious leaders, political and social personalities in various countries to strongly condemn the massacre of political prisoners in Iran in an act of solidarity with the Iranian people. They should urge their governments to make their continued political and commercial relations with the mullahs’ religious dictatorship contingent on end to executions and torture in Iran.

6. I urge the UN High Commissioner on human rights to immediately set up an independent committee to investigate the 1988 massacre and subsequently put those in charge before justice. I urge the UN Security Council to make the arrangements for prosecution of the regime’s leaders for committing crime against humanity.

All the major cases of carnage and repression in the past quarter of a century in Iran are linked to the person of Khamenei and his corrupt offices. He earned succession to Khomeini by actively participating in the 1988 massacre, and must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity before all the other leaders of the regime.

Dear compatriots, the main target of the massacre in 1988 was the PMOI. Khomeini taught his successors that to preserve power, they must annihilate the group that persists on its positions. In the past three decades, Khamenei and his accomplice, have put this lesson into practice.

In contrast, the PMOI and the National Council of Resistance of Iran, as the democratic alternative to the regime, are the force of victory and freedom. They will realize their glorious goal by relying on the people of Iran. On that day, the victims of the 1988 massacre and all the 120,000 martyrs fallen for Iran’s freedom will live in the determination of Iran’s youths, in 1000 bastions of rebellion, 1000 Ashrafs, and in the army of freedom. They will thus start a blessed era of freedom, democracy and equality.
Endless salutes to the shining stars of the Iranian Resistance, the proud martyrs of 1988. 
And hail to the pioneers who have risen to call for justice for the victims and continue their path and cause on a higher level for Iran’s freedom.

JUSTICE SEEKING MOVEMENT HAS SHAKEN UP THE REGIME RELYING ON MASSACRE- MARYAM RAJAVI’S MESSAGE ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1988 MASSACRE

MARYAM RAJAVI WELCOMES NEW SANCTIONS ACT, STRESSES NEED TO IMMEDIATELY AND FULLY IMPLEMENT THEM

Maryam Rajavi urged other countries, in particular the EU and the Middle East nations, to adopt these sanctions, so as to deny the regime the opportunity to take advantage of its diplomatic and commercial ties with them and continue to suppress the Iranian people and export terrorism and war to the rest of the region.

Eviction of the IRGC and their militia from the Middle East is indispensable to the enactment of this Act

Maryam Rajavi welcomed adoption of a bill by both chambers of the US Congress which imposes new sanctions on the Iranian regime for violating human rights and pursuing ballistic missiles. The U.S. Congress also extends sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for its involvement in terrorism.

She added: “Since several years ago, the Iranian Resistance had urged the terrorist designation of the IRGC, as it preserves the entirety of the clerical regime and acts as its main apparatus for domestic suppression and export of terrorism and fundamentalism. However, the policy of appeasing the mullahs’ religious dictatorship paved the way for the IRGC and its proxies’ rampage in the entire region.”

Rajavi underscored the need for the immediate and complete implementation of these sanctions and their respective provisions. She emphasized that there should be no loopholes that would allow the regime and its official and unofficial entities, as well as its domestic and foreign interlocutors to evade the implications of the bill.

Maryam Rajavi urged other countries, in particular the EU and the Middle East nations, to adopt these sanctions, so as to deny the regime the opportunity to take advantage of its diplomatic and commercial ties with them and continue to suppress the Iranian people and export terrorism and war to the rest of the region.

She added: “The immediate implementation of sanctions against the IRGC and its affiliated entities must be coupled with the expulsion of IRGC and its affiliated militias from the Middle East, in particular from Syria and Iraq; this is indispensable to the enactment of this Act and a prerequisite to ending conflict and crisis that have engulfed that region.

Rajavi asserted that full implementation of these sanctions against the Iranian regime must be completed with urgent actions against officials in charge of executions, torture and particularly the massacre of political prisoners in 1988. Topping the list is Ali Khamenei, the mullahs’ supreme leader. They must face justice for 38 years of crimes against humanity. The ultimate solution to the crisis in the region is the overthrow of the illegitimate clerical regime by the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance. Recognition of the Iranian people’s desire and right to overthrow the mullahs and establish democracy and freedom in Iran is the greatest contribution to peace and tranquility in the Middle East and the world.

The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 27, 2017

Source:MARYAM RAJAVI WELCOMES NEW SANCTIONS ACT, STRESSES NEED TO IMMEDIATELY AND FULLY IMPLEMENT THEM

New US Sanctions Blacklist Iran's IRGC

“The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), not just the IRGC Quds Force, is responsible for implementing Iran’s international program of destabilizing activities, support for acts of international terrorism and ballistic missiles,” the House Resolution text reads in part.

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 05: Rep. Elliot Engel (D-NY) speaks during a news conference discussing new legislation on U.S. policy toward Russia April 5, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. U.S. Also pictured is Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). (Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Heshmat Alavi , CONTRIBUTOR

This is an excellent article. Must  read.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday placing new sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia. This follows a similar version adopted overwhelmingly by the Senate in a 98-2 vote last month.

The House resolution, however, faced a more peculiar road even riddled with obstacles. Fortunately, the overwhelming 419 to three vote in favor of this bill, the bipartisan Countering Adversarial Nations Through Sanctions Act (H.R.3364) has made it veto proof. Despite the fact of alterations made in the initial text, all glitches have been set aside to gain White House consent.

“The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), not just the IRGC Quds Force, is responsible for implementing Iran’s international program of destabilizing activities, support for acts of international terrorism and ballistic missiles,” the House Resolution text reads in part.

This development is a devastating blow to Tehran and a major success for the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

I welcome the US House of Reps’ new sanctions and terrorist designation of #IRGC as essential to rectifying the policy of appeasement pic.twitter.com/hfSzmwT3Pz

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) July 25, 2017

Calls for regime change in Iran and support for the NCRI have been gaining unprecedented weight in Washington, leaving Iran’s mullahs utterly terrified.

Iran has been found “threatening U.S. national security and undermining global stability with a range of aggressive acts” through ballistic missile tests, supporting terrorist organizations and meddling in the internal affairs of other states. The House bill is calling for political and economic measures to place Iran before accountability.

This resolution can fundamentally be considered the blacklisting of Iran’s IRGC as the criteria imposes mirroring restrictions, and at times goes even further.

The IRGC will be placed on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists following these procedures becoming law and US President Donald Trump taking the engagements necessary. The following is a list of the actions stated in this House resolution:

• All assets and property in the US belonging to IRGC-linked individuals and entities will be frozen.
• No American individual or entity has the right to establish financial, business, services or other affiliations with any individuals directly or indirectly associated to the IRGC.
• No American individual or entity has the right to violate these sanctions through intermediaries or bypassing these procedures.
• All individuals and entities having any relations with the IRGC must be sanctioned. Considering the fact that the IRGC officially enjoy a variety of connections and associations, this will effectively be paralyzing for Iran. One such example is the IRGC Khatam al-Anbiya group that is currently cooperating with more than 2,500 economic firms. All these companies will be sanctioned, rendering any relations with them illegal.
• As these measures place the IRGC under secondary banking sanctions, practically no financial institution will be permitted to provide direct and/or indirect banking services to IRGC-linked individuals and entities. No foreign bank will cooperate with any Iranian entity that is in any way related to the IRGC and/or its affiliated entities.

These sweeping arrangements follow the NCRI’s annual convention held on July 1st in Paris this year with senior American figures such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calling for even more drastic moves against Iran.

Source:New US Sanctions Blacklist Iran's IRGC

The Right Solution For Iran Is Not War

This is an excellent article. Must  read.

We are at a critical juncture in our time in history. The Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has entered now its third year.

As the Trump White House is pending its Iran policy there is increasing support for regime change. All the while the Iran appeasement camp are boosting their efforts of claiming any firm policy on Tehran will lead to war. The question is do the measures professed by this party truly prevent war?

When Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) recently held its annual convention in Paris, with Trump “emissaries” such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaking powerfully of regime change in Iran. Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton went as far as declaring the Iranian regime will not witness its 40^th anniversary in February 2019.

In response, Iran and its lobbies in the West, terrified of such a surge behind the NCRI as the sole alternative able to bring about true change in Iran, have not remained silent. Iran apologists are yet again seen resorting to the old tactic of warning about a new war in the Middle East.

For decades now pro-Iranian regime writers have cautioned against adopting a firm policy on Tehran, allowing the mullahs’ regime to plunge the entire Middle East into havoc.

As we speak Iraq, Syria and Yemen are in ruins thanks to Iran’s support of proxy elements fueling sectarian conflicts and deadly civil wars.

The war in Afghanistan has yet to finalize after 16 years, and reports continue of Iran supporting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in this country.

Lebanon has yet to witness political stability in decades as Iran continues to funnel millions of dollars and arms to its offspring, the Hezbollah, brought to life by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) back in 1982.

Many other Arab countries can follow suit after Kuwait expelled Iran’s ambassador and more than a dozen other “diplomats” from its soil based on espionage charges.

But of course, the Iran apologists conveniently consider such matters as irrelevant or at best second hand. These very Iran lobbyists are the actual warmongers as their efforts have provided Tehran the opportunity to bring upon utter devastation to all Middle East nations.

Pat Buchanan in a Townhall piece argues, “After Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, would America and the world be well-served by a war with Iran that could explode into a Sunni-Shiite religious war across the Middle East?”

Neglected here is the passivity encouraged by such Iran-apologists has actually empowered Tehran. The end result has been Iran engulfing Iraq and Syria into a horrific abyss of Shiite militias massacring innocent Sunni civilians.

Former MEP Struan Stevenson sheds light on such an unfortunate phenomenon.

“800,000 people have been rendered homeless from Mosul alone, millions when you count the refugees who fled from Ramadi and Fallujah. Thousands of innocent Sunni civilians have been killed, and tens of thousands among them were injured,” he wrote in a recent Al Arabiya article.

There is no question that the 2003 Iraq war was a strategic mistake. Yet why do Iran-apologists, again conveniently, neglect another drastic error of Obama prematurely pulling all US troops out of Iraq in 2011? This left the fledgling state of Iraq at the hands of wolves, being Iran, its puppet, former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, and Shiite proxies and death squads.

We simply cannot deny the fact that al-Maliki in Iraq, Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, all supported financially and logistically by Iran, paved the path for the rise of ISIS. They massacred Syria’s Sunnis, parallel to Maliki’s crackdown of the Iraq’s Sunni minority. This allowed ISIS to spread, and first in Iraq and Syria, and thus throughout the Middle East, Europe and beyond.

The regime in Iran actually benefited extremely from the rise of ISIS to claim legitimate its involvement in Iraq and Syria through Shiite proxy groups.

Again, as Iran-apologists across the board in the US and Europe encouraged engagement and rapprochement with Tehran, climaxing unprecedentedly during Obama’s tenure, Iran’s mullahs continued their killing spree across the region.

Looking back at the past several years, one can dare to accuse these Iran-apologists of paving the path for Tehran to legitimize its horrific killing sprees, and causing a horrible number of deaths. Can we not accuse them of warmongering?

These Iranian lobbyists, including Trita Parsi, head of the so-called “National Iranian American Council”, raise the flag of war being bad for business, and thus cheering diplomacy to encourage business. Yet he neglects Iran’s own warmongering in the Middle East.

All said and done, with the Trump administration seriously weighing regime change as policy vis-à-vis Iran, the international community sees before it the opportunity to finally adopt the right policy on Iran.

Engagement has failed. Wars in the Middle East have been disastrous. We do not want to go down that road in regards to Iran. And there is no need.

The Iranian people and their organized opposition, the NCRI, are more than capable of toppling the mullahs’ regime in Tehran. This organization has everything in place and seek only the international community to recognize their struggle and end the disastrous Iran appeasement approach. A course correction vis-a-vis Iran policy regarding is needed, too, in order for the people of Iran and their opposition to take on the rest.

Source:The Right Solution For Iran Is Not War

Certifiably wrong about Iran’s compliance

It’s hard to believe, and much less to ‘certify’ that Iran is living up to its sworn obligations

You can look at these fotos and then judge

Via:The Iranian Express

Or to these fotos

Via:Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. ‘Handed the Country Over’

During President Trump’s campaign he said that Mr. Obama’s 2015 nuclear weapons deal with Iran was the “worst deal ever.” Although there are many diplomatic deals vying for that title, the deal engineered by Mr. Obama is at least one of the worst ever for two reasons.

First, it essentially guarantees that the world’s principal terrorist nation will obtain nuclear weapons either during the fifteen-year term of the deal (stealthily) or openly soon after it ends. Second, because it does precisely nothing to limit Iran’s development and production of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

The Trump administration has certified to Congress that Iran is in compliance with the deal (the “Joint Cooperative Plan of Action”) twice, first in April and again last week. Those certifications are required every 90 days by the “Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act” (INARA), the anti-constitutional law that permitted Mr. Obama the ability to claim Senate approval of the deal without senate ratification.

Mr. Trump reportedly considered telling Secretary of State Tillerson to not make the July certification but decided not to. It would have been far better if the president had blocked both certifications.

The problems that should have blocked the certifications are found within INARA’s terms or are directly derivative of them.

INARA required that within five days of reaching an agreement with Iran, the president shall send Congress, “the full details of the agreement, including all supporting materials and any classified annexes to the agreement.”

That was never done. The Senate’s duty to object to that failure, thereby killing the deal, was ignored.

Because of the Senate’s failure we don’t know what the so-called agreement actually provides. For almost two years it has been entirely clear that secret side agreements were made with Iran that the U.S. wasn’t allowed to see. At least one of them provides that Iran can self-inspect the Parchin nuclear site which is believed to be the center of the Iranian nuclear weapons program. (Unsurprisingly, the self-inspections tell the IAEA that all is just peachy at Parchin.)

In August 2015, Secretary of State John Kerry said that he hadn’t seen the side deal. His “negotiating deputy,” Wendy Sherman, said she’d seen a few pieces of paper but wasn’t allowed to keep them.

The most conclusive evidence of our ignorance was also published in 2015. Mr. Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s purblind nuclear “watchdog,” told members of congress that he was bound by secrecy and couldn’t divulge the agreement (agreements?) to them. We don’t even know what other side deals are being concealed from us.

In a 2015 interview Mr. Trump made clear that he wanted to renegotiate the deal, not cancel it. He said, “We have a horrible contract, but we do have a contract.” He added that he “loves” to buy bad contracts and make them good. Attorney General Sessions should tell the president that because we’ve never seen the secret side deal there is no “contract” between us and Iran. We’re not bound to any contract parts of which we’ve never seen.

Mr. Trump can’t renegotiate the deal because Iran — and the deal’s other signatories, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany — refuse to do so. Because there are no inspections of Parchin, any certification that Iran is complying with its obligations under the agreement is purely fictitious. We cannot believe, far less can certify, that Iran is living up to its obligations under Mr. Obama’s deal.

Mr. Trump’s choices are limited to either revoking the deal or living with it. So far, he has chosen the latter course. He must know that is as untenable a choice as living under the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

Our national security requires the president to establish policy goals for Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and for whichever other conflicts — cold or hot — threaten our nation’s vital interests. At this point, no such policies have been forthcoming from the president.

Mr. Trump has never established a goal for Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Mattis, who is drafting the Afghanistan strategy, said earlier that it would be ready in mid-July and more recently that it isn’t yet. Is the policy for Iran to live with its nascent nuclear threat? What does the end of “strategic patience” mean for our policy toward North Korea?

The president has made it clear that he won’t telegraph our strategies or tactics to the enemy, which is entirely correct. But the American people, and our allies, need to know enough about our policy goals to make the political decision to support them.

The longer the president waits, and the more political defeats he suffers, the more difficult it will be to convince them.

Mr. Obama was severely criticized, and rightly so, for his six-month delay in deciding a mini-surge of troops for Afghanistan. His belated announcement, which included a date-certain on which the troops would be withdrawn, was self-defeating.

The lesson for Mr. Trump is this. Making clear decisions, conveying them to Americans and our allies and acting upon them, is the only substitute for Mr. Obama’s dithering. And only revoking his “agreement” with Iran can lead to a solution to a highly dangerous problem.

• Jed Babbin served as a deputy undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration. He is a senior fellow of the London Center for Policy Research and the author of five books including “In the Words of Our Enemies.”

Source:Certifiably wrong about Iran’s compliance