If you thought America pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal just to add another stipulation or two, you were proven mistaken on Monday – big time.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – who has only been on the job for about a month – made it abundantly clear the White House is applying a full-court press to stretch Tehran to its limits. Pompeo's 12 demands as a condition for sanctions relief appear, at a glance, rather extreme, over the top, perhaps unrealistic. Some pundits have already called it the ultimate call on the ayatollah regime to wave the white flag.
However, even if Pompeo's alleged terms of surrender are impossible to meet, they are all salient and entirely justified. They reflect what every country signed to the deal knew but chose to ignore: A conventionally armed Iran is currently no less menacing to its neighbors than a nuclear armed Iran would be in the future.
In this vein, among other things, Tehran must now withdraw its forces from Syria; scrap its plan to open a new front against Israel from there; stop arming Hezbollah, and abandon its goal of establishing a regional hegemony by toppling Arab regimes.
It should be noted that some of the demands included in Pompeo's 12-point presentation – for instance those pertaining to Iran's ballistic missile program and the Revolutionary Guards' subversive activities across the Middle East – were already raised during negotiations over the current nuclear deal but were quickly dismissed due to the Obama administration and EU's pressing desire to sign the deal as quickly as possible.
The Trump administration is now trying to turn back the clock with conditions more impervious than any deal with European countries, which still insist on adhering to the previous deal despite Washington's warning that sanctions violators will receive no quarter. As expected, Iran quickly rejected Trump's demands outright, despite the assurance of hefty payoffs if Tehran were to respond positively: not only the removal of sanctions but also the renewal of diplomatic relations and access to advanced technology.
Assuming Trump intends to follow through with his threats, Iran's supreme leader now has two primary options: Withdraw from the nuclear deal and maybe even renew uranium enrichment, hence risking open conflict with the United States, or try bargaining the Americans down, via the Europeans, and survive.
