U.S.
Policy Options to Support
Iran's Protesters
The images and videos showing Iranian
citizens protesting conditions in their country have exposed the
regime's increasing illegitimacy.
Tehran's attempt to create a veneer
of acceptability has been thwarted by its own people-with populist
chants against regional adventurism of 'Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, I give
my life for Iran,' and the tearing down of posters of the supreme
leader and Qods Force head Qassem Soleimani.
The U.S. should take three steps in
the near-term to demonstrate support for the protestors and further
pressure the Iranian regime. 1) Employ a concerted campaign exposing
the corruption and repression associated with Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his allies; 2) Utilize President Trump's
new executive order implementing the Global Magnitsky Act; and 3)
Designate the Qods Force as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
First, under the Iranian Leadership
Asset Transparency Act -which the House passed in December-the
Treasury Department would have to publicly disclose the assets and
money-laundering activities of sanctioned Iranian officials and post
their findings in Farsi, Azeri, Arabic, and English. A public education
campaign could go a long way in exposing mismanagement at the highest
level in Tehran.
Second, on December 21, 2017,
President Trump issued
an executive order "blocking property of persons involved in
serious human rights abuse or corruption," using authority
granted to him by the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability
Act, which was signed into law in 2016. Thirteen individuals were sanctioned
under the order in a first tranche, including leaders from Gambia,
Nicaragua, China, and Russia, but none from Iran. The measure gives
the secretaries of state and treasury the authority to add more
individuals as appropriate. Monitoring closely how the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij volunteer force, and
other elements of Iran's security juggernaut respond to the protests
in the coming days will be important in holding Iran's leaders
accountable.
Lastly, the administration should
designate the Qods Force as an FTO. The Trump administration wisely
applied more intensive terrorism sanctions to the IRGC, as a whole,
under Executive Order 13224, as the Bush administration had done to
the Qods Force in 2007. However, the secretary of state retains the
discretion to label the Qods Force as an FTO under Section 219 of the
Immigration and Nationality Act. In 2009, Kata'ib Hizballah was added
as an FTO, and the Qods Force publicly supports them. It's well past
time that the Qods Force be similarly designated. Such a step
provides the U.S. additional leverage in influencing Iranian and
European behavior as now international firms would be subject to
additional criminal penalties, including providing material support
to the Qods Force, and would lend assistance to the Iranian people's
call for reining-in Iranian expansionism.
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