STRICTLY SECURITY | Nadar Uskowi is the author of the new book 'Temperature Rising: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Wars in the Middle East,' which details not only the threat posed by Iran, but many of the limitations likely to confound the Ayatollah’s quest for exporting the Islamic Revolution. In a recent interview, the Atlantic Council senior nonresident fellow and author discussed with host Barbara Opall-Rome.
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The Iranian government needs to cease promoting terrorism and instability around the Middle East or they can prepare to watch their economy collapse, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook tells i24NEWS.
'We think this is an opportunity to get a better deal that addresses not just the Iran’s nuclear program which is what the Iran deal does but also addresses intercontinental ballistic missiles, terrorism, cyber threats, terror finance, maritime aggression, and their support of Hezbollah and Hamas,' Hook said in an interview with Spin Room host Ami Kaufman.
U.S. President Donald Trump slapped a first round of sanctions on Iran in August after pulling out in May from the 2015 international deal aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions, to the dismay of his European allies. A second round of punitive measures went into effect November 4 to target Iranian crude oil.
Trump argues that funds from lifting sanctions under the Iranian nuclear agreement have been used to support terrorism and build nuclear-capable missiles.
European allies have pledged to keep the deal alive, with plans for a mechanism to let firms skirt the U.S. sanctions as they do business with Iran.Brian Hook serves as the U.S. Special Representative for Iran as well as the senior policy adviser to the Secretary of State.
'Companies are given a choice. They can either do business in the United States or they can do business in Iran, but they cannot do both,' Hook tells i24NEWS.
'Given the size of the U.S. market compared to the Iranian market, all major firms choose the U.S. market,' he says.Hook says the goal of the newest round of sanctions is to bring Iran back into the diplomatic arena. 'This is a regime that historically does not come to the negotiating table without a lot of economic and diplomatic isolation,' he adds.
-- For ‘the Iranian people’ --
'If you look at polls inside Iran, its clear the Iranian people place the blame for economic hardship on this regime and on President Rouhani specifically,' Hook says. 'This is a regime that for 39 years has been robbing its own people blind.'
'It’s deeply corrupt. It’s a dark and brutal religious dictatorship, which paradoxically has increased the secularization of Iran. And so I think the Iranian people know that our sanctions are designed to target the Iranian regime,' he adds.
As evidence that the sanctions do not target Iranian civilians, Hook explained the items that fall outside the net of U.S. sanctions. 'We do not sanction food, agricultural products, medicine, or medical devices.'
'The Iranian regime needs to make sure that when the humanitarian assistance is allowed, it reaches the Iranian people,' he says.
Iranians have been protesting their deteriorating economic conditions in recent months calling for their government to enact much-needed changes.
'A lot of the things the U.S. is asking the [Iranian] regime to do are the same things the Iranian people are asking the regime to do. One of the biggest things is to get out of Syria,' Hook says.
Iran has provided steady political, financial, and military backing to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he has fought back a seven-year civil uprising which has killed more than 350,000 people and displaced millions more.
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