The recent attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and the shooting down of a US military surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz has created tension in the region while the world is watching what the Trump administration’s proper response should be against the perpetrator, the Islamic Republic and its terrorist paramilitary group, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  

The Islamic Republic is highly isolated, sanctions are working and economically they are one step away from becoming another Venezuela.  This brutal regime is on the verge of collapse. By attacking the IRI militarily, we will give them new life. It is my conviction that a military attack against Iran should not even be the last card on the table. Any such move, either by Israel, the U.S., or a combination of both, will trigger a kind of turmoil that can set the region ablaze. And the blaze will most assuredly scorch Israel and hugely damage the U.S.

A sanction is a punishment levied on another nation, or on individual citizens of another country. It is an important foreign policy and economic pressure that can be described as a sort of carrot-and-stick approach to deal with international trade and politics.

There are still those who are against sanctions for a variety of reasons. Some say that sanctions cannot be effectively enforced; others claim that sanctions have never worked in the past and won’t work in the future. These nay-sayers never come up with any practical or viable alternative.

The sanctions clearly hurt the Iranian people. No question about that. Yet, a temporary hurt of this nature is a price that people are willing to pay to get rid of this scourge of the IRI. The mullahs are determined to get their bloody hands on the atomic bomb and further strengthen their position in promoting violence and mayhem in the Middle East and beyond. In the process, the Iranian people will end up being victimized.  President Trump must step up the pressure on the IRI. Once the IRI falls, the lynchpin of Islamism will be destroyed. America, Israel, and the rest of the world will be hugely safer without the end-of-the-worlder Mullahs being in command with nuclear weapons at their disposal.

There's also a general agreement that sanctions have worked, gripping Iran financially and bringing its leaders to the negotiating table. As mentioned, Iran's economy is, by any measure, in terrible shape. If we shut down Iran’s oil industry, that would do the trick. That would be the end of this brutal regime. I believe we need to stick with the plan and don’t take the bait and go to war with a weak adversary.

The sanctions will also damage Iran's power to export goods like pistachios and its famous Persian rugs. The most significant impact of the sanctions may be the number of European companies that will stop doing business with Iran.