Senate looks to Iran next

With the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Iran has lost one of its most valuable pieces on the chessboard of Middle East influence. Under al-Assad, Syria was a thoroughfare for Iranian weapons and munitions to support terror attacks such as the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. But last week, Sunni militia took over Damascus and al-Assad fled to Russia, leaving a power vacuum Western allies such as the United States hope to exploit.

“There’s no question that the Iranian regime right now is about as weak as it’s ever been,” Gen. James Jones, former U.S. national security adviser, told WORLD. He was a guest speaker at a briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. The topic for attendees and senators: how to oust Tehran’s dictatorship and install a democracy. Experts at the briefing said Syria’s coup provides the perfect opportunity.

Other Iranian proxy groups in the Middle East have taken hits in the past year. Israel has killed several leaders of the Islamist group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas has weakened from its yearlong fight with Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“Their acolytes of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis [in Yemen] are also on their back feet,” Jones said. “This isn’t the time to be charitable with them. Going back to the Clinton administration, our policy has been to find a way to change behavior. What we’ve learned is that it doesn’t work. We’re after seeing the people of Iran get a new government based on democratic principles.”

Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., attended the lunch briefing on Iran policy hosted by the Organization of Iranian American Communities. They each said targeting the Iranian regime will be a top priority for the new Congress, which begins next month.

“We know that Iran is the No. 1 exporter of global terrorism and violence and killing,” Booker said in a speech at the luncheon “We have an urgent obligation to stand together, not just as Americans, but stand together with global allies in making sure that this regime’s suppression of its own people comes to an end.”

During his first administration, President-elect Donald Trump took a position he called “maximum pressure” against Iran. It largely equated to a vast plate of economic sanctions. He also pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal with six other nations.

When President Joe Biden took office, he launched talks to restore the nuclear deal, but they have not resulted in a new agreement. Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon and denies pursuing one, but its nuclear program frequently flouts international restrictions on developing highly enriched uranium. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi told Reuters that Iran dramatically increased its uranium enrichment and production capacity just last week.

Republicans say Trump’s pending return to the White House is just the kick the nation’s foreign policy stance needs.

“Nobody had a worse day on Election Day than the ayatollah,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, referring Iran’s supreme leader. “They are shaking. And on Jan. 20, we will return to a maximum pressure policy.”

Most U.S. policy toward Iran has taken the form of economic sanctions. Senators say it’s time to expand to social and journalistic pressure.

“I’m looking at some of the ways in which we can promote free media into Iran, internet access, ways in which people can get information that tells them what's happening,” Sen. Shaheen told WORLD at the luncheon. “I think we need to look at a whole range of things that would help put pressure on the country.”

Some Republicans are raising more specific ideas. “It’s now or nuclear,” Sam Brownback told the group attending the luncheon. Brownback is the former governor of Kansas and former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

“[Iran has] got this 12th imam philosophy that when you get enough chaos going on in the world, the messiah figure appears,” Brownback told WORLD. “A theocracy with a nuclear weapon whose theology supports the use of it is a horrific mixture for the U.S. to face. So I want to see some tweaks to Trump’s policies.”

Specifically, Brownback pushed for “maximum pressure 2.0,” but he said the new iteration should include political pressure such as overt support for outside resistance groups like the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

“It was the groups that brought Assad down,” Brownback said. “We need that directly confronting the Iranian regime.”

Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, addressed the group in the U.S. Senate office building via video conference. She said her movement is taking courage from Assad’s fall in Syria.

“The people, who are deeply discontented and angry, along with the resistance units … are preparing an organized uprising,” Rajavi said. “I have consistently emphasized that our goal is not to seize power but to restore it to its rightful owners, the people of Iran and their vote.”

Booker told WORLD that Syria’s regime change is cause for cautious optimism.

“I think some of this we have to wait and see. Clearly, what Iran has lost right now is their influence with an oppressive leader to use as a land bridge to supply some of the most awful terrorists with resources and funding, but I still think there’s a lot we have to wait and see on how this plays out.”

In Assad’s wake, an array of rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, who has known ties to terror groups, appear to have taken control. Without Iran pulling the strings, the country’s Sunni majority is reclaiming the government. But that does not ally them to the United States, nor is it clear whether the new government will be a democratic one.

“It’s complicated, because unfortunately a lot of times the first iteration can still be Islamist terrorists, and they can go after religious minorities,” Brownback told WORLD.“Step one is to guarantee religious freedom as a hallmark of the nation. Then we can move on from there.”