President Donald Trump has just announced steps that could eventually lead to the complete reversal of his predecessor’s detente towards Cuba. Criticism has already started streaming in and mostly for the right reasons. President Trump had two “detentes” to deal with after assuming office. One was with Cuba, which reached its desired goal of full diplomatic restoration. The other was with Iran, which President Obama was resolute on getting through; and he did manage to score big with the controversial nuclear deal. President Trump should rather focus on dismantling that deal, for Iran has American blood on its hands. Cuba is not even a menace anymore.
Cuban Americans could have played a role in convincing Trump to go tough on Raul Castro. Among other factors, the Cuban voters in Florida helped Trump win the presidency. Their antagonistic behavior towards the Cuban regime — and Trump’s own perceptions — helped him make the decision. Trump is also antagonistic towards Tehran but his efforts to reverse the nuclear deal are running into problems, largely because of the large cadre of pro-Iranian carry-overs from the previous administration.
A case needs to be made against Iran, rather than Cuba. If there is one lobby in the United States that has been spared the attention despite a very visible presence, it is the Iranians. The silence about its activities, despite a very open presence, is baffling. Almost four decades of severed diplomatic relations should ideally have weakened the advocates for mullahs and their so-called moderate frontmen. On the contrary, many have been emboldened enough to completely whitewash Iran’s direct role in the Syrian pogrom and its vast network of terror activities. And they were being supported by the top leadership at least until January 20 of this year.
Kim Ghattas of the BBC recently analyzed the alleged race between the Saudis and the Iranians to woo the Americans. Among other things, she discussed the absolute disregard for keeping regional alliances by the Obama administration. In their quest to ink the nuclear deal with Iran, John Kerry and his boss swept aside the mounting evidence of Iran's state-sponsored terrorism, stretching back to the 1970s. Ghattas went on to say the Obama administration privately advocated for building enduring alliances with Iran. They apparently were least concerned about the inextricable evidence of the Iranian government’s direct role in terror activities, dating back to the 1983 Beirut bombings.
This yearning for building alliance with Iran at the cost of other regional partners, and more importantly, by jeopardizing regional peace, has long charmed the DC elites. Even during the Bush administration, Americans were secretly meeting with the Iranians. In his piece on Qassem Soleimani, the notorious commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Dexter Filkins mentioned a discussion with American diplomat Ryan Crocker. The diplomat had undergone a series of meetings with Soleimani and other Iranians just after 9/11. Soleimani was visibly restless at American reticence in attacking Afghanistan. Similarly, his comrades were hellbent on convincing the Americans to go after Saddam Hussein. This was before the sketching of blueprints for the now-debunked pretext of eliminating the weapons of mass destruction.
The collusion between the Iranians and the Americans during that era is no longer a secret. Many in the Middle East believe America did Iran's bidding and got nothing in return. The Taliban and Saddam were a menace to Tehran, which it was able to eliminate with American sweat and blood. Americans are still entangled in Afghanistan and Iran has turned Iraq into a de-facto colony. Meanwhile, it is also in cahoots with the Taliban, supposedly an enemy, and is egging Russia on to strike at the core of American interests in the region. That Iranian acolytes in US still have the gall to advocate for a detente is astounding.
In a world that has rediscovered its love for hardcore realism, American indifference to the Iranian hell-raising doesn’t make sense. The proponents of forging an alliance with Iran in the American establishment need to do some soul-searching. After spending trillions of dollars and losing thousands of lives (many at the hands of Iranian-backed militias) for ultimately advancing the Iranian cause, how far can Americans go? Perhaps the time has come to confront the Iranian menace once and for all. At the very least, duplicitous dealings – which ultimately harm American interests and cost American lives – should end. The Trump administration should honor its promise of strangulating Iran's nefarious tentacles around the region. He can start by designating IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization.