U.S. officially re-imposes Iran sanctions Obama lifted, will maintain them until support for terrorism ends

When President Trump first announced he was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, we got the inevitable protest from Barack Obama, and his first argument against the decision was that “Iran is complying” with the deal. That’s debatable, but it speaks to a larger problem: The Iran nuclear deal didn’t require enough of Iran in exchange for the sanctions relief it delivered. In addition to no serious inspection regime on the nuclear question, the deal neither required Iran to stop supporting terrorist groups nor prohibited Iran from using the assets unfrozen by the deal for the purpose of supporting terrorists.

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Needless to say, the mad mullahs have quickly funneled the money to their favorite terrorist groups, as well as to efforts to create mayhem in Syria. At midnight this morning, that sanction relief came to an end:

The White House made good Monday on its vow to reimpose sanctions on Iran, striking a blow against Iran’s weakening economy and putting the world on notice that still-tougher sanctions are to come. The measures are the first economic action Mr. Trump has taken against Iran since announcing in May that the U.S. was withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord. They will remain in effect unless Tehran meets the administration’s demands to stop its support for militant groups in the Middle East and ends its enrichment of uranium, U.S. officials say. “We are intent on cutting off the regime’s access to resources that they have systematically used to finance terror, fund weapons proliferation, and threaten peace and stability in the region,” a senior administration official said. “Our actions will continue to severely limit the ability of Iran, which as you know is the largest state sponsor of terror, to gain funding to continue to finance its wide range of malign behavior.” The measures, which will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, will prohibit Iran’s access to U.S. dollars, sanction Iran’s trade in gold and precious metals, outlaw the purchase of Iran’s sovereign debt, and sanction Iran’s automotive sector. Far tougher steps will come into force on Nov. 5, when the U.S. tries to cut off Iran’s oil exports and imposes sanctions on Iran’s shipping, among other measures.

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It’s simply astonishing that Obama and John Kerry lifted the sanctions without any commitment by Iran to stop supporting terrorism. Actually, it would be astonishing if it had not been Obama and Kerry – and particularly Kerry – negotiating the deal. Kerry is anti-American to his core, and has no trouble with terrorist groups that attack western interests, especially when the interests being attacked include Israel. Kerry hates Israel. Almost as much as he hates America. He sees the likes of Hezbollah as the moral equivalent of the American soldiers he slandered after serving with them in Vietnam. Where others see a regime like Iran’s as a perpetrator of violence and evil, Kerry sees a useful check on imperialist America. The Obama-loving media would have you believe the Iran nuclear deal was a great diplomatic achievement. It was nothing of the sort. Anyone can get a deal when you’re willing to give the other side whatever it wants and you don’t care if you get anything back. Anyone can get a deal when you don’t care about the interests of your own country. The Iran regime is evil. It permits no freedom, it cares nothing for the best interests of its people, and it seeks to perpetrate murder wherever it can. We finally have a president who understands that. Good.

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