Italy’s former foreign minister urged European nations to join with the United States in adopting a “more assertive policy” with regards to Iran in a commentary published Sunday on Fox News.
Giulio Terzi, who served as Italy’s foreign minister from 2011 to 2013, warned that if Iran “emerges from the nuclear agreement with improved delivery systems” that could target Europe, this “would constitute an immediate threat for European security and peace.” He criticized the European Union for being “slow to adapt to the new geopolitical reality” of Iran’s increasing aggression since the implementation of the nuclear deal, which he blamed on “a false narrative and the political environment encouraged by the [nuclear deal].”
Since the accord was supposed to encourage more ties with Iran, “European leaders and businesses are ill-advisedly rushing” to take advantage of the new markets. But Terzi noted that increased business will only strengthen Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which “currently controls more than half of the Iranian gross domestic product.” This makes it “nearly impossible to invest in the Islamic Republic without financing directly or indirectly the nuclear-capable missile program, as well as terrorist organizations and Iranian military interventions and ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars.”
The IRGC has also shared some of its missile technology with Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have threatened Saudi Arabia and international shipping lanes. Additionally, it directs Iranian proxies including Hezbollah and Shi’ite militias in Iraq, and supports terrorist organizations including Hamas.
Terzi praised the White House for appearing to adopt an “assertive policy” towards Iran and putting it “on notice.” He called on the U.S. and Europe to support democratic opposition to the regime, both inside Iran and abroad.
Ultimately, Iran’s support of terror and illicit weapons program “must be constrained,” Terzi wrote. He called on all European nations “to get on board” in confronting Iran.
In January 2016, Terzi predicted that though the P5+1 nations and Iran had begun implementing the nuclear deal, it “will neither make the Middle East safer nor fundamentally change the nature of the Iranian regime and its conduct in the region.” Given the continuing bloodshed and increasing tensions in Syria, for example, his assessment appears to be accurate.
[Photo: European External Action Service (EEAS) / YouTube ]