The blockade is fighting the wrong war
Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh think the conflict with Iran may expire on the Navy’s maintenance schedule. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has another clock: how quickly it can replace the channels of its illicit funding, the company, flag, insurer, or bank account Washington just identified. Both clocks matter, but Gerecht and Takeyh’s Sept. 15 warning in the Wall Street Journal concentrates overwhelmingly on the first.
TL;DR
- The US focus on a naval blockade against Iran overlooks its robust sanctions-evasion network.
- Iran's illicit funding channels, involving companies, flags, insurers, and banks, regenerate faster than the US can identify and sanction them.
- Dismantling the financial and corporate infrastructure behind Iranian oil sales is crucial, not just intercepting tankers.
- This evasion network is complex, spread across multiple jurisdictions, and hides within legitimate global commerce.
- The US needs to treat this as a network problem, using multiple tools and sharing intelligence quickly to make Iran's system slower and less profitable.