Hill:
He spoke out forcefully against the nuclear deal during his campaign and is now on record saying that Tehran is not respecting the agreement. Yet, under pressure from his advisers, Trump has twice certified Iran’s compliance with the deal. Still, it seems clear that the president wants to get tougher on Tehran right away. If that is the case, then he should direct the Department of Treasury to slap new sanctions on Iran Air, the national carrier of the Islamic Republic, and cancel its licenses to purchase a combined 200 planes from Boeing, Airbus, and ATR, an Airbus joint venture with Italy’s Leonardo.
New sanctions would rely on the authorities established by executive orders punishing material support for terrorism and for the Syrian regime. Such sanctions are fully consistent with the nuclear deal, which only prohibits new sanctions on the Iranian nuclear enterprise. Iran Air richly deserves to be sanctioned, because in addition to being a national carrier engaged in commercial flights, the airline has helped Iran’s Revolutionary Guards throw a lifeline to the regime of Bashar al Assad in Syria and Iran’s terror proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
The nuclear deal lifted sanctionsagainst Iran Air and allows the sale of commercial aircraft, parts, and services to other Iranian carriers as well. But the deal does not obligate the administration to permit every sale. In fact, it stipulates that aircraft sold under license be used exclusively for civilian purposes, which clearly disqualifies any airline working on behalf of Assad and Hezbollah.
Backed by Iran’s airlift, the Assad war machine is responsible for the death of half a million people, the displacement of millions more, the gassing and torturing of thousands, and the ethnic cleansing of vast swaths of the Syrian countryside.
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