Europe, stop trying to save the Iran deal

In recent days, Iran has threatened to withdraw from parts of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action unless the Europeans find a way to save them from crippling U.S. sanctions. After Iran made this threat, Nathalie Tocci, an adviser to EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, implied in an interview with CBC News that it is still possible to save the Iranian nuclear deal and that it is the preferable option for the EU to do so.

Tocci could not be more wrong in her assessment. Contrary to what EU policymakers claim, the fate of the free world depends on the EU not saving the JCPOA but walking away from the worst deal of the century. Just as Germany, France and the U.K. proclaimed that they will reject Iranian ultimatums, the entire EU must follow suite and reject appeasement of the Iranian regime.

Iran becomes a greater threat to the Middle East and the entire free world by the day. According to intelligence information obtained by the Safadi Center for International Diplomacy, Research, Public Relations and Human Rights, Iran is building weapons factories deep inside of Syria as we speak. Together with Turkey and its radical Islamist supporters, Iran will fill the vacuum left following a U.S. withdrawal. One of the main indications of this is that the Iranian regime is establishing weapons supply routes from Iran to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The first route starts at the Qaim Border Crossing between Iraq and Syria. It continues onward toward Raqqa and Aleppo. The second route starts at the Qaim Border Crossing, continues till Deir ez-Zor and onward to Palmyra. According to the report, Iran supplies most of their weapons during night shipments through these areas using 16-meter trucks and four-wheel drive vehicles in order to protect the convoys.

The report, which was provided by the Syrian opposition, proclaims that an Iraqi national named Hajj Nasser Al Alawi reportedly mans the Qaim Border Crossing and oversees Iran’s weapons shipments in the region. According to the report, Deir ez-Zor also has an Iranian Revolutionary Guards headquarters, hosting 60 fighters, half of them Iraqi and half of them Iranian. The Deir ez-Zor headquarters also has a warehouse for weapons and ammunitions. There is also reportedly an Iranian military airport in the area.

Dr. Seth Frantzman, executive director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, said in a talk that he gave for the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, “Post-ISIS, Iran is growing in power and influence in the region. Sunni Arab areas were destroyed in the war against ISIS in Iraq. Shia militias filled the vacuum left by ISIS and waved their flags over Sunni mosques. They fund religious shrines and expanded their influence in Iraq. Furthermore, Iran [subverted] the Syrian regime. They are not just allies. They have religious shrines and cultivated roots there. They have bases and militias. They want to stay there.”

According to the Mendi Safadi, who heads the Safadi Center, “Iran’s establishment in the region is an existential threat to Israel and the Syrian people.” It also poses a threat to the free world, as the Iranian regime is presently undermining our Kurdish allies in Syria and Iraq and the Gulf Arab states via Iran’s proxy war in Yemen, and is even harming America’s strategic interests in Africa and Latin America, as demonstrated by recent Iranian activity in Venezuela. The world cannot permit a constant cash flow to continue propping up this tyrannical Iranian regime, which seeks to establish a Shia crescent across the region and the world at large, merely due to the false hopes that doing so will lead to the containment of Iran’s nuclear program.

At best, sanctions relief will lead to the empowerment of a rogue state that supports terrorism across the globe, continuing to threaten the world in every aspect except the nuclear one. At worst, Iran will find a way to cheat on the deal and not only will we lose critical time in fighting against Iran’s nuclear program but a horrible regime will be further empowered to spread terror across the entire world. For this reason, the EU must say no to sanctions relief and stand behind the U.S. in its struggle against tyranny instead of appeasing Iran’s brutal regime.