Trump Intensifies the ‘Maximum Pressure’ on Iran

The Trump administration yesterday terminated sanctions waivers that had temporarily allowed China, Turkey, India, South Korea and Japan to continue importing oil from Iran.

By purchasing large quantities of the mullahs’ energy flows, these countries had long been complicit not only in extending the Iranian theocracy’s misrule.  They have also thus enabled the ayatollahs to underwrite their oppression at home and jihadist terror abroad.

At least some of these nations will likely choose to defy U.S. sanctions. For its part, Tehran is suggesting that it will retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz – which would make access to other Persian Gulf nations’ oil and gas exports problematic and costly.

The right response will be for the United States to keep ratcheting up the pressure to help the Iranian people rid themselves of the government that tyrannizes them and menaces the rest of us.