The UN’s snapback sanctions expose Tehran’s refusal to comply with nuclear obligations. Now Western governments must strike at the IRGC’s oil revenues and dismantle its shadow networks.
United Nations sanctions against the Iranian regime have been reactivated a decade after their suspension, following the launch of the snapback mechanism. This decision is a clear acknowledgment that Tehran has no intention of honoring its nuclear commitments. But now Western governments must take further, tougher, and broader steps to dismantle the regime’s global terror network.
First and foremost, the West must target the oil money that is vital to the terrorist operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Guard’s illicit oil trade — worth around $50 billion annually — is the regime’s lifeline. This income funds Hamas rockets, sustains Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon, enables Houthi piracy in the Red Sea, and finances assassination plots across Europe.
The system that makes this possible is not abstract. It is a network of ship owners, brokers, and investors who smuggle Iranian crude by switching off transponders, altering cargo names, and concealing transactions through Dubai, Istanbul, or Kuala Lumpur before the oil reaches global markets. Each of these facilitators is a weak link.
But the threat does not end abroad. The Iranian regime has for years subjected its people to the harshest repression. Whenever it feels its survival is in danger, it escalates executions. The people of Iran deserve a democratic life and government. They are heirs to one of the world’s greatest civilizations — poets, scholars, and philosophers with a history stretching back thousands of years. Yet in 1979, their destiny was stolen when Ruhollah Khomeini institutionalized the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih, giving absolute power to the Supreme Leader and committing the regime to exporting its revolution.
The IRGC became the instrument of this mission. It is not an ordinary military force but the guardian of a reactionary doctrine that finances Hezbollah, Hamas, Shia militias in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen. The rulers in Tehran are not simply supporters of terrorism — they are terrorists who have usurped the sovereignty of the Iranian people.
For decades, the West’s policy of appeasement convinced itself that this situation was manageable. The nuclear deal, the JCPOA, embodied that hope. But the regime violated its commitments and pressed on regardless.
The snapback sanctions mark the end of that illusion — but they are only the first step. The United States has already designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization and sanctioned hundreds of entities. Other nations, by contrast, has sanctioned just some individuals and entities and still refuses to designate the IRGC as a terrorist group. This is indefensible.
The West must now expand sanctions to ensnare the brokers and shipping companies that sustain Iran’s shadow economy and dismantle the hidden networks that spread extremism worldwide. This is not just necessary for global security, but also for supporting a people who have repeatedly shown their resistance to this regime yet have been denied the backing they deserve because of failed appeasement policies.
The Iranian people deserve a world that does not appease their oppressors. The time has come to abandon appeasement once and for all, recognize their right to resist, and support their organized opposition.
