The Perpetual Pressure Game
The recent Axios report detailing discussions between former President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding increased economic pressure on Iran, particularly targeting oil sales to China, is less a revelation and more a rerun. What they termed a strategy to alter Iran's 'calculus' on its nuclear program mirrors decades of coercive diplomacy. This playbook has seen repeated deployment since
the 1953 CIA and MI6-orchestrated coup against Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, which reinstated the Shah and fueled generations of anti-Western sentiment. The persistent assertion that Iran is perpetually 'months from a nuke,' a claim Netanyahu himself has made since 2002, serves as the constant justification for these measures. Yet, Iran, a signatory to the
Non-Proliferation Treaty, maintains its program is for peaceful energy purposes, unlike nuclear-armed states in the region that remain unsanctioned. The current push, echoing the Trump administration’s 2018 unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA, effectively punishes Iran for an agreement it was adhering to. This double standard is stark: the US demands compliance while routinely violating
international agreements itself. To suggest economic strangulation will lead to 'concessions' ignores how previous sanctions, which cost Iran over $280 billion in oil revenue between 2012 and 2016, only entrenched a sense of grievance and resolve within the Iranian government. Readers should recognize this pattern: calls for 'pressure' are often pretexts for broader regime-change aspirations,