Flashpoint: Syria

The recent escalation of hostilities in Syria has added urgency to the current discussion over our next steps vis-à-vis Iran. Already, Iran’s growing strategic footprint there has brought it into direct (albeit limited) military confrontation with Israel—raising the specter of a wider regional war if Iranian influence is not contained and reversed. Preventing such an escalation should be a top priority of the Trump administration, and it will require the White House to deploy a strategy that simultaneously targets Iran’s vulnerable economy, rolls back its extensive regional influence, and helps empower its population’s long-suppressed urge for democracy.

Whether it can do so will be the barometer by which the White House’s impending decision about the future of the Iran nuclear deal will be judged.

Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC.