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As President Donald Trumps foreign policies take shape, his approach to Iran marks the most pronounced difference from his predecessor.

In contrast to the repeated efforts made by President Barack Obama to reach out to Iran, culminating in the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday delivered a laundry list of Irans alarming and ongoing provocations that export terror and violence, destabilizing more than one country at a time in the Middle East. Its illegal pursuit of missile technology and deferred nuclear ambitions are evidence, he said, that Iran threatens the United States, the region and the world.

While the State Department on Tuesday said Iran is complying with the JCPOA, Secretary Tillerson said Wednesday that the agreement did little more than postpone the day when Iran acquires nuclear weapons. Indicating that the Obama strategy of kicking that can down the road was unacceptable, Mr. Tillerson declared, The Trump administration has no intention of passing the buck to a future administration on Iran.

It is about time for some frank acknowledgement of these facts, many of which were sidestepped by the Obama administration out of concern that raising the issues might risk the nuclear agreement.

While it is too soon to predict how the new administration will comprehensively address these facts, President Trump has already sent Secretary Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis to Saudi Arabia to discuss how the two countries will address the evolving Iranian threat.

On Thursday President Trump calling the JCPOA a terrible agreement, and said Iran is not living up to the spirit of the agreement, I can tell you that. And were analyzing it very, very carefully and well have something to say about it in the not-too-distant future.

On Wednesday in Riyadh, Mr. Mattis praised Saudi Arabia for its efforts to help stabilize the Middle East and supported the Saudi effort to end the threat from Houthi rebels in Yemen who fire Iranian-supplied missiles into Saudi Arabia. Everywhere you look, if theres trouble in the region, you find Iran The nations in the region and others elsewhere are trying to checkmate Iran and the amount of disruption, the amount of instability they can cause, he said.

From its inception in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been very clear about its foreign policy objectives, which include the destruction of Israel, the banishment of the U.S. from the Middle East, and advancing followers of the Shia sect of Islam to positions of power throughout the region. That policy that has brought it into direct conflict with Sunni-led regimes like Saudi Arabia and, if unopposed, could lead to Iran controlling all of Persian Gulf oil production, including the Saudi wells.

In the past dozen years Iran has escalated its efforts to transform the Middle East by protecting its investment in the Assad regime in Syria and its forward strategy against Israel, including support for the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and Hamas. It has expanded its influence in Iraq, challenged freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden, and opened a front against Saudi Arabia in Yemen. It is hard to find any parallel for such a broad, persistent aggressive campaign in world politics since the end of World War II.

While Irans pursuit of nuclear weapons is cause for alarm, it is clear that even without nuclear weapons Iran is already able to wreak havoc in many Middle Eastern nations and bring increasing military pressure on Israel. That is a threat that must be addressed, and it is welcome news that the Trump administration appears to be ready to do so.

Read more from the original source:
New focus on the Iran threat - Charleston Post Courier