Disconnecting the banks from the international system, a republican commitment to the future as well and avoiding repeating the mistakes in the nuclear agreement • This is how Iran should be dealt with • Interpretation

• Change store in Iran

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Two months before the US presidential election in November, the critical struggle with Iran and the nuclear ambitions and regional authorities. Donald Trump must continue to campaign "maximum pressure" and also to build mechanisms to prevent return of the nuclear agreement corrupted from the past.

For starters, the government must put blacklisted 13 Iranian banks remain In the banking system and cut off from SWIFT, with the exception of one bank that will remain for humanitarian trade.This action will cut off economic oxygen to Tehran, continue to fuel protests and strikes against the regime, and build leverage for future negotiations.

The administration needs to complete the construction of the sanctions wall consisting of political deterrence and market deterrence.

The wall will be built from sanctions focused on the regime's support for terrorism, the ballistic missile program, and human rights violations.

Republicans need to make it clear, through a congressional decision, that if Biden is elected and the sanctions lifted, it will be only temporary.

International companies will understand that they will lose their investments in Iran when the Republicans regain power in four years and return all sanctions. 

Avoid a slippery slope

The wall needs another international stamp.

On August 20, the administration activated a SNAPBACK mechanism, embedded in the nuclear agreement.

Under the agreement, the United States has the right to unilaterally demand the return of the sanctions lifted on Iran.

Almost all members of the Security Council oppose Washington's demand, but assuming the process succeeds, it is advisable for Biden to use the leverage that will be created.

The United States will be able to negotiate an improved agreement, which will expand the arms and missile embargo and eliminate uranium and plutonium production.

Biden consultants are drafting working papers to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA, or even to the 2013 interim deal, the JPOA.

According to the papers, the easing of sanctions is being considered - completely wrong - just so that Iran can return to the table.

It was a bad idea then and now.

Partial victory.

Iran announces agreement to allow IAEA inspectors to patrol two nuclear facilities // Reuters

To avoid repeating mistakes, it is important to understand how they were made in the past.

In 2012, senior American officials from the National Security Council and the State Department arrived in Israel for a secret visit with their counterparts. According to them, the United States must provide Iran with a way out of the nuclear deadlock.

Their proposal, which they called "confidence-building measures" (CBM), was based on easing sanctions in exchange for light Iranian concessions in the nuclear program.

This approach later became a cornerstone of the Obama administration's negotiations, and it seems that Biden's team is embracing it again.

Israel has argued that the only way is to demand full Iranian compliance with all existing Security Council resolutions.

Iran should not be given relief from sanctions in retaliation.

The Americans presented that the complete solution, at the end of the process, would include full compliance with existing decisions, including zero uranium enrichment, zero plutonium, zero heavy water, solving the military dimension of the program from the past and a complete cessation of Iran's nuclear ambitions. 

We all know how it ended.

The Iranians achieved through negotiations all their demands and more, from an American team instructed to secure a deal before Obama's term expired. The 2013 deal gave the Iranians billions and unprecedented recognition of their right to enrichment. Granted Iran an immediate right to research and develop advanced centrifuges that are easy to hide, scope for ballistic missile development and access to heavy weapons, with the conventional arms and missile embargo lifted within five to eight years. .

Victory over Washington

How can such mistakes be prevented from recurring?

The U.S. must strengthen and support IAEA efforts, especially after CEO Rafael Grossi's recent trip to Tehran. The agency must continue to demand full compliance with the agreements, including last week's agreement granting the agency visitation rights at two sites where Iranians hid illegal nuclear activity. The

Agency must insist that the commitments do not include a restriction on future inspection rights, including inspections based on the use of archival materials obtained by the institution, including new details on Tehran's weapons programs.

In any case, Iran won again in the last round against Washington.

Organizing the inspectors' visit, collecting the samples, analyzing them and publishing the report will not happen before the US election, and the momentum has stopped.

The IAEA must condemn Iran for its continued violations of the nuclear deal. It is not possible to say that the agreement is valid when the regime violates it and publicly announces it. The US withdrawal from the agreement cannot be blamed for violating it and at the same time claiming that the agreement is still valid.

The U.S., Israel and other powers' intelligence services must continue their covert efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program and terrorist activities. According to IAEA reports, the July sabotage of Natanz against Iran's advanced centrifuge program has reversed this critical component of the year or two years.

The U.S., Israel and others who may have been involved should continue to harm nuclear facilities, missile development and production infrastructure, military infrastructure and Iranian forces in the region. The Obama administration has made a mistake in tying the hands of the U.S. and its friends, Washington must use that leverage against Tehran.

If successfully completed, the "snapback" will serve as a renewed basis for future negotiations and prevention of mistakes made by the JCPOA. Extending the period of restrictions or slightly better testing is not enough. A new agreement must permanently block any possible Iranian nuclear weapons route, and initially not allow production fissile material of any kind and in any quantity, on the land of Iran. Iran must "come clean" about the activities of its past and reduce the development of missiles that threaten America and its allies. this was the foundation in 2013 in order to go back.

it's probably too much to ask teams of Trump and Biden Coordinate between them a future policy towards Iran, but they can march divided and strike united, learning from past mistakes.It is good for the Americans and their friends in the Middle East, who have found themselves in the Iranian missile range and are afraid of nuclear Iran.

Brigadier General (Res.) Prof. Yaakov Nagel is a senior research fellow at the Institute for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a visiting professor at the Technion's Faculty of Aeronautics and Space; 

Mark Dubowitz is a former investor and manager in the capital and high-tech market and currently serves as CEO of FDD, where he focuses on Iran and China.