Iran’s massive drone, cruise, and ballistic missile attack on Israel this weekend massively escalated international violence and tensions in the Middle East. President Joe Biden is lucky that, with Israel and its regional partners in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, it was able to prevent serious damage or loss of life.
But Iran’s latest offensive is part of a larger pattern of aggression that has been tolerated for too long by the Biden administration. The president’s reflex for appeasing Iran has encouraged its belligerence and made the need for a radical course correction urgent.
A week before Hamas invaded Israel last October, raping, killing, and kidnapping civilians, national security adviser Jake Sullivan filed an essay with Foreign Affairs magazine claiming that the Middle East “is quieter than it has been for decades” thanks to Biden’s policies. The statement became such an embarrassment for the White House that Sullivan asked that the online version be taken down. But Sullivan’s analysis was just as deplorably poor when he wrote his article as it is now, even though its faults have been made more glaringly obvious.
As soon as he came into office, Biden rolled back former President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy against the tyrannical Iranian regime. Biden rescinded sanctions on Iran, announced his intention to resume talks to reach a deal with Iran on its development of nuclear technology, and made it easier for shipping companies to do business with Iran’s oil industry.
As higher oil revenues poured into Tehran, the number and frequency of Iranian proxy attacks on U.S. military personnel shot up, and Biden did nothing to respond. The message Tehran took from this weakness was that it had a green light to escalate further.
Biden has begun to admit its massive error in the Middle East, but far more change is needed. Shortly after coming into office, Biden lifted the terrorist organization designation that Trump had placed on Houthi forces in Yemen, who are one of Iran’s terrorist proxies. After the Houthis terrorized shipping in the Red Sea, Biden finally took action this January and put the group back on the terrorist list.
He should do whatever he can to shut down the flow of oil revenues to Iran. Front companies and Chinese firms smuggling Iranian oil must be identified and penalized. Cooperation between Russia and Iran on nuclear projects should not be tolerated. Biden should rescind the waivers he gave to allow this work. He should also demand that European allies enforce export controls on components for Iranian drones, which saw action against Israel this weekend and have been a mainstay of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. The president should also fast-track permits for exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe instead of suspending them, which has been his recent policy. Any policy that cuts into Russian and Iranian energy profits helps defund the danger posed to our troops and allies overseas.
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Finally, Biden must respond consistently and forcefully to Iranian proxy attacks on American forces. Tehran has proven that when its force is not met with force, more aggression follows.
The Democratic Party’s belief that Iran could be coaxed into becoming a responsible regional power has been exposed as a naive daydream. Renouncing former President Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is not enough. The United States needs bipartisan commitment to containing and defanging Tehran. We can’t wait for an election in November. We need a change of course now.