Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who will be serving as special envoy for Russia and Ukraine under President-elect Donald Trump, recently stated that the US should resume its strategy of “maximum pressure” and that the Iranian regime’s downfall has raised the question of Iran’s destiny.
“I believe this year should be considered a year of hope, it should be considered a year of action, and it should be considered a year of change,” declared Kellogg, a former official in Trump’s first administration, speaking at a Paris event hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an Iranian opposition group.
According to the former lieutenant general, the Middle East would experience the greatest instability if Iran were to develop and acquire nuclear weapons. Despite pushback from former Obama administration officials, then-President Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal while in office, as Kellogg pointed out to the opposition organization.
“For the United States, a policy of maximum pressure must be reinstated, and it must be reinstated with the help of the rest of the globe, and that includes standing with the Iranian people and their aspirations for democracy,” according to Kellogg.
In 2018, during his first term in office, Trump reimposed economically devastating sanctions and withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which is commonly known as the Iran nuclear agreement. The prime ministers of Germany, France, and the UK had pushed the president to stay loyal to the pact, even while some, like Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, had praised the decision.
The comments, given in the last days of Trump’s first term in office, provide more evidence of how his second administration would deal with the Iranian menace in the new context of a Middle East engulfed in violence following the terrorist assault on Israel on October 7.
“The beginning of the end of Iran’s primacy began, ironically, a year ago, on 7 October,” according to Kellogg.
Kellogg pointed out that economic and diplomatic pressures are just as necessary as physical or military action when dealing with Iran.
There was a once in a generation chance for Iranians to reimagine their own destiny, according to Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an Iranian opposition party. This chance came with the downfall of Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s long-serving ruler.
Keeping the Syrian dictatorship in place was no easy feat for Khamenei and the IRGC, and they will confront an even more formidable challenge in quelling the organized opposition and rebellion that has been growing in recent months. Rajavi predicted the fall of the dictatorship.
It was a watershed point in Iran’s history, according to Rajavi. After the present administration is toppled, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has a plan for a democratic Iran, as stated by Rajavi. With the formation of a six-month-long transitional administration, the primary objective would be to organize free elections for a Constituent Assembly and hand over authority to the representatives chosen by the people.
“The overthrow of the mullahs’ regime is the only way to establish freedom in Iran and peace and tranquility in the region,” Rajavi added with optimism.
Taking advantage of Iran’s present vulnerabilities, Kellogg said that the United States should aim for a “more friendly, stable, non-belligerent, and a non-nuclear Iran” in the near future.
France has been accused by the Iranian government of harboring a “terrorist group” and the French government has been criticized for failing to uphold its international legal responsibilities to combat and prevent terrorism, according to Esmail Baqaei, a spokeswoman for the Iranian foreign ministry.