With new news everyday from the Middle East, it was only a matter of time that the region's chief troublemaker would sooner or later grab some of the headlines. That happened this week with reports of protests in the country; calls to execute opposition figures; and a request from Tehran to Egyptian officials to allow Iranian warships to transit the Suez Canal.
The Heritage Foundation recently released two major reports on the Iranian regime. "Iran's Energy Sector: A Target Vulnerable to Sanctions," argues Iran's Islamist regime has exploited Iran's huge energy resources to fuel a military buildup, build an extensive nuclear weapons program, maintain its power, and export its Shia Islamic revolution and that the US can do a lot more take the oil weapons out of the regime' hands.
"Containing a Nuclear Iran: Difficult, Costly, and Dangerous," finds that containing a nuclear Iran will be difficult, costly, and dangerous and will pose a challenge that the Obama Administration is ill-suited to meet. The US would be far better dealing with the restive regime now than waiting for it to become an atomic power.
With these findings in mind, Heritage Middle East scholar James Phillips outlines a program for ratcheting up sanctions on Iran.
