Iran’s most recent test of a ballistic missile on Sunday is an early test of the Trump administration’s bona fides to get tough on Tehran’s antics. Tough talk is important in international diplomacy with the mullahcracy, but rhetorical flourish alone won’t check an increasingly belligerent Iran. With Wednesday’s confirmation of Rex Tillerson as secretary of State, the Trump administration needs to embark on forming a multilateral coalition to hold Iran accountable for its non-nuclear aggression; advance measures to sanction its ballistic missiles program; and at the same time crack down on the Tehran-Pyongyang missile pipeline.
The testing of the medium-range Khorramshahr ballistic missile, which traveled 600 miles before exploding, is only the latest in Iran’s cheating at the margins, specifically defying United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which enshrines the nuclear deal, and “calls upon” Iran to not conduct “any activity related to ballistic missiles… including launches using such ballistic missile technology.” Iran has been interpreting the “calls upon” language as essentially providing it a way to opt out of complying with the resolution given the twelve such missile dry runs it has undertaken since the nuclear deal was signed in July 2015. That’s on top of Iran’s proliferating shipments of arms to terror proxy Hezbollah, which then outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned in December were violating an international arms embargo, as well as arms transfers to Tehran’s Houthi allies in Yemen.
{mosads}Such a dossier of illicit activity—which Iran conveniently frames as outside the contours of the nuclear file—is crying out for attention. In turn, one place to begin is for Secretary Tillerson and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley to borrow a page from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s playbook and build a new transatlantic consensus that such non-nuclear behavior is unacceptable and will be punished accordingly.
Europe—like the United States—is concerned over Iran’s reckless behavior. Just ask UK Prime Minister Theresa May who warned about “Iran’s malign influence in the Middle East” during her trip to Washington last month. President Trump should work with Prime Minister May to recruit Germany, France, and Italy to support new sanctions targeting Iran’s regional misbehavior. Europe does have more commercial interests at stake when it comes to Iran than the United States, but it’s in the interests of Berlin, Rome, and Paris to support such measures given the refugee influx from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq, and Yemen—enabled by Iran’s regional meddling—which is presenting an unprecedented security risk to the continent’s livelihood.
At the same time, the Trump White House should be advancing stalled legislation targeting Iran’s ballistic missile program. On Wednesday, Reps. Pete Roskam (R-Ill.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), and Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) introduced the Iran Nonnuclear Sanctions Act of 2017. Among other provisions, it would impose sanctions against persons that knowingly aid Iran’s missile program and would require sanctions against entities owned 25 percent or greater by Iran’s key ballistic missile organizations. Despite Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s repeated claims that such tests are only for defensive purposes, the Rouhani administration doesn’t oversee the program itself. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—a sanctioned, terrorist organization—retains operational control over the program through its Al-Ghadir Missile Command. And Iran’s conservative Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appoints its leading commander. As a result, if the mullahs continue testing and defying, the Trump administration has additional leverage to support sanctions against entities that are minority-owned by the IRGC.
The IRGC is a powerful economic player in Iran and routinely operates through front companies. Such a measure could chill foreign investment into Iran, particularly in its oil and gas sector, as the U.S. Treasury Department has designated the National Iranian Oil Company as an agent or affiliate of the IRGC itself.
Lastly, thwarting the Iran-North Korea missile network should be a priority. Left unchecked, North Korea’s stated intention to test long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)—like the KN-08 and KN-14 road-mobile ICBMs which could reach the U.S. homeland and Europe—presents a threat to the international community. Iran and North Korea’s missile cooperation date back to the 1980s, and as late as January 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that “[w]ithin the past several years, Iranian missile technicians from Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group traveled to North Korea to work on an 80-ton rocket booster being developed by the North Korea government.” Given Kim Jong-un’s increasingly bellicose behavior and repeated Iranian ballistic missile activity, sanctions need to be tightened to address this illicit relationship, particularly on the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which has a checkered past of deceit in its repeated attempts to acquire missile components from Germany. This is something the Iran Nonnuclear Sanctions Act of 2017 does well—in requiring such measures against entities owned 25 percent or controlled by Shahid Hemmat.
Iran’s former foreign minister and a special advisor to the Supreme Leader Ali Velayati taunted President Trump this morning, calling him “inexperienced.” The Iranians are waiting and will keep pushing the envelope. It’s time that America begins to push back.
Jason M. Brodsky is the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran. He is on Twitter @JasonMBrodsky.
The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.