Date: Friday, November 22, 2019
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer, Director

The Pressure & The Protests

The protests that have rocked Iran this past week are largely due to the tremendous economic pressure the country is facing from renewed sanctions imposed by the Trump Administration.

Foreign Policy reports, "Iran Protests Suggest Trump's Sanctions Are Inflicting Serious Pain." Various economic estimates suggest that Iran's economy is sinking into a deep recession, with its GDP shrinking as much as 10% this year.

According to the Washington Post, Iran's oil exports are down 75% since 2015. Meanwhile, the Post adds:

"Many of Iran's state-owned enterprises -- including those affiliated with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, and the Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful security branch -- are exempt from paying taxes. Iranians have balked at the money they say is spent funding Iran's military operations abroad."

The Iranian people are right to be upset. As we previously reported, members of Iran's Quds Force fired rockets at the Golan Heights this week. It is funding Hezbollah and Hamas. The ayatollah's regime directs its resources not for the good of the Iranian people, but for spreading terror and Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East. It is more dedicated to annihilating the Jewish state than it is to developing Iran's infrastructure.

The good news is that President Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign is having the desired effect. Earlier this month, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lamented the impact of Trump's sanctions, warning that "the country's situation is not normal," adding, "Iran is experiencing one of its hardest years since the 1979 Islamic revolution."

Rouhani complained that his country is going broke without oil sales, saying:

"Without money, we cannot run the affairs of the state. Although we have some other incomes, the only revenue that can keep the country going is the oil money.

"We have never had so many problems in selling oil. We never had so many problems in keeping our oil tanker fleet sailing. How can we run the affairs of the country when we have problems with selling our oil?"

If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, it must start acting like a normal country. It must stop threatening to destroy Israel. It must stop sponsoring terrorist organizations. It must stop destabilizing the Middle East. It must stop its clandestine pursuit of nuclear weapons. It must stop repressing its people.