AMB GORDON SONDLAND: Our allies enjoyed a free ride trading with Iran. Trump is shutting that down
President Donald Trump is finally proposing the Iran policy that our allies have spent decades avoiding: If you want the benefits of doing business with the United States, you cannot also help finance the regime in Tehran.
It really is that simple.
Trump’s "Economic D-Day" is not merely another sanctions package filled with the names of Iranian officials who do not have American bank accounts and never planned to visit Disneyland. The important idea is to punish the foreign countries, banks, refiners, shipping companies and middlemen that keep Iran in business.
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They must choose between Iran and America. They should no longer be allowed to choose both.
When I served as U.S. ambassador to the European Union, I watched European governments twist themselves into diplomatic, legal and moral contortions to avoid seriously sanctioning Iran. There was always a deal that took precedence over principle.
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One country had an energy contract to protect. Another had companies pursuing Iranian business. Someone else wanted to preserve a diplomatic channel. Brussels was perpetually waiting for another negotiation that would supposedly moderate the regime if only we remained patient, constructive and commercially engaged.
Europe claimed that commerce created leverage. Iran got the commerce and Europe rarely exercised the leverage.
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Tehran took the money, funded its proxies, expanded its missile program, brutalized its own population and continued advancing its nuclear capabilities. Then, whenever Iran created another crisis, the Europeans looked to Washington to solve it.
That has been the international bargain for far too long: Our allies make money, Iran makes trouble and America gets its hands dirty.
Trump is turning that arrangement on its head.
The United Arab Emirates’ decision to suspend trade and financial transactions with Iran is a major development. Dubai has been much more than another Iranian trading partner. It has served as a gateway to the world — providing access to re-exports, currency conversion, trade finance, shell companies and goods that sanctions were supposed to keep beyond Tehran’s reach.
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Closing that door will hurt. But the UAE cannot be a heroic exception. It must become the model.
Trump should look every allied leader in the eye and ask: Are you prepared to close your country’s Iranian commercial and financial channels, or do you intend to continue financing the threat you expect America to contain?
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This time, we are not asking our allies to fight a kinetic war. We are not asking them to send troops, drop bombs or put their citizens in harm’s way. We are asking them to help choke off the economic lifelines of the axis of evil.
That is not too much to ask. It is the minimum.
Countries enjoying American security guarantees, favorable trade arrangements and access to the world’s most valuable economy have obligations. Access to America is not a birthright. It is a privilege, and privileges come with conditions.
Those refusing to cooperate should face inferior trade terms, tighter visa rights and greater scrutiny of their financial institutions. Companies knowingly facilitating Iranian trade should lose access to American government contracts, capital markets and banking relationships.
Trump’s message should be unmistakable: If you help keep Iran open for business, America will become less open for business to you.
This effort also needs sunlight. Congress should create a bipartisan "Naughty and Nice List" identifying the countries, banks, refiners, shippers, insurers and intermediaries either helping isolate Iran or helping it evade pressure.
The "nice" list should recognize those that shut down Iranian accounts, stop buying its oil, expose front companies and enforce sanctions honestly. The "naughty" list should name those moving Iranian money, disguising cargo, processing oil sales or supplying dual-use technology.
Update it every month. Read the names publicly. Make the executives, ministers and heads of government explain their conduct.
That may sound theatrical. Good. Theater gets attention — and attention creates accountability. Governments and companies depend upon complexity, deniability and public boredom to maintain relationships they would rather not defend. Drag those relationships into the daylight.
There must be a reputational cost in addition to an economic one. Leaders continuing to trade with Iran should have to explain why their commercial interests take precedence over stopping nuclear proliferation, terrorism and attacks on international shipping.
Europe, in particular, needs to stop pretending that continued engagement with Tehran is a neutral act. Money is fungible. Every commercial relationship that provides Iran with hard currency strengthens the regime’s ability to finance the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, missiles and proxy warfare.
The same applies to Asian energy buyers, flag registries, ports, insurers and banks. If they facilitate Iranian trade, they are part of Iran’s economic infrastructure and should be treated accordingly.
China is the ultimate test. Beijing cannot receive the full benefits of access to American consumers and capital while providing the economic oxygen that keeps Tehran alive. Chinese refineries, banks, trading houses and shipping companies handling Iranian commerce should face direct restrictions in the United States.
If Trump backs away when the first major Chinese institution is implicated, this becomes another slogan. If he follows through, the effect will be immediate and global.
Critics will call this escalation. They call almost any exercise of American leverage escalation. In fact, this is the opposite of what a warmonger would do.
A warmonger would send hundreds of thousands of American troops into Iran, occupy the country and spend another generation trying to rebuild it. Trump is instead using America’s economic power to avoid the continuation of a major American war.
Israel should not be prevented from taking covert gloves off.
Israel has the intelligence, operational capability and motivation to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program, missile systems, procurement networks and proxy infrastructure. The United States should provide intelligence, logistics, missile defense and strategic support while allowing Israel to do much of the difficult covert and kinetic work.
If Tehran continues its aggression, further highly selective action against the commanders, nuclear architects and operational leaders responsible must remain available. This is not a call for indiscriminate warfare or American occupation. It is a strategy of making the people directing Iran’s aggression personally accountable while steadily dismantling their capabilities.
In blunt terms, let Israel handle much of the wet work. America should set the strategy, organize the allies, enforce the economic quarantine and prevent China, Russia or anyone else from rescuing Tehran.
This is burden-sharing with teeth.
The endgame must also be clear. Iran must abandon any path to a nuclear weapon, dismantle its dangerous enrichment capabilities, stop attacking international shipping and end its financing of proxy warfare. Any relief must be conditional, reversible and tied to verified conduct — not Iranian promises or another vague agreement Tehran can manipulate.
For years, the foreign-policy establishment has told us that the Iran problem is terribly complicated. Some parts are. The central choice is not.
Why should America protect countries that help finance the threat? Why should access to our market be treated as an entitlement? Why should the United States bear the military risk while others preserve their profitable relationships with the adversary?
Trump is asking the right questions.
If he constructs a genuine economic quarantine, forces our allies to choose, empowers Israel to eliminate the most dangerous threats and keeps American military involvement selective and decisive, this could become his finest hour.
It would also expose the hypocrisy of those who routinely call Trump a warmonger. He is not leading with an invasion. He is leading with American economic power and demanding that our allies finally participate.
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The world has spent long enough hedging — trading with Iran during the good times and calling Washington when Tehran becomes belligerent.
The talking is over. Now comes the choosing.