Why Trump’s Maximum Pressure on Iran Is Just the Beginning

Why does any of this matter? The answer lies in something Trump said but didn’t say. The purpose of maximum pressure is to drive Iran’s oil exports to zero in order to prevent the Ayatollahs from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “With me, it’s very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. It’s important to note that Iran’s oil exports generated $53 billion in 2023, with even more projected for last year.

After signing the Executive Order, Trump said he was torn on whether to do so. He said he was open to a deal with Iran and expressed a willingness to negotiate with the Iranian leaders. But here’s the question: if an Islamic Iran cannot be trusted to have a nuclear weapon, ever, how can anyone as smart and savvy as Trump trust them to negotiate?

When it’s known that there is no civilian use for enriching uranium as high as the Islamic regime is doing, and the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said Iran is “pressing the gas pedal” to enrich uranium to weapons-grade what is there to talk about?  When even the New York Times reports that US intelligence indicates there’s a covert team of Iranian scientists exploring ways to quickly develop a nuclear weapon once the Ayatollahs give the green light, the only thing to talk about is shutting down any channel of support for the regime and the IRGC. That is not negotiable. It is a red line.

As much as I do thank God for President Trump and his decision, he needs to understand that there can be no negotiation with these Islamic terrorists. There is no pressure in the world that he can bring on his own that will cause the Ayatollahs to reform. Rather, they will do anything they can to stay in power, with no concern for the well-being of 80 million Iranians or their future. They will lie and deceive anyone they can and need to. It’s not only because they are bad and deceitful people. They are. It’s because they are “good” Muslims, and in Islam, lying and deceit are a pillar of their faith, taqqiya.

As “good Muslims,” they have defrauded the world in all negotiations and will continue to do so. If it were to come to the end of the regime, the Ayatollahs would pay any cost, make any statement, and sell half of the country to stay in power because they knew their own people were ready to hang them.

As a businessman, President Trump needs to know that he can get more from Iran, for America and the world, after the fall of the regime, not by negotiating with it. It is a serious mistake to think that the Ayatollahs and IRGC are rational actors and they just want peace. By negotiating with them, it will only put America and all Americans at greater risk, embolden the Islamic regime, and make peace for Israel, the Middle East, and the world harder and further away.  

The cornerstone to peace in the Middle East and freedom for Iran and the Iranian people is only to decapitate the head of the Islamist terrorist octopus whose tentacles spread its evil and dangerous ideology throughout the world. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter capitulated and sold out Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, paving the way for the Islamic revolution that hijacked Iran and spread its cancerous cells around the world.

Today, the West must understand the danger of radical Islamic ideology as the single greatest exporter of terror and hate around the world. Today, we must envision and work toward a world with an Iran free of its Islamist chains and evil leaders. Only with the cutting off the head of the octopus in Iran can we see the funding and threats from its proxies shrivel up and die as well. When Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and many other Iranian regime-funded and armed entities lose their patron, the world can and will become a safer place. A free Iran will be a cornerstone of that.

I believe peace is President Trump’s vision and goal, but it cannot be done so through negotiation and appeasement of the Islamic regime. Yes, maximum economic pressure will hurt the Iranian people the most. The Iranian economy is already a disaster, and there is tremendous suffering. But no sanctions will change the regime’s nefarious agenda: to impose extremist Shia Islam on Iran and the world. And no pressure will cause the regime to ever look out for the interests of the Iranian people.

Unfortunately, I know this all too well. Growing up and living most of my life under the strict Islamic misogyny that subjugates all women and girls, being arrested and sentenced to death by hanging for the “crime” of becoming a Christian, and witnessing the abuse, torture, and execution of my husband and countless cell-mates, only by keeping true to my faith and standing strong in the face of their evil was I able to survive. Only the Iranian people can truly free themselves, but the regime must be weakened on all levels so they can rise up and reclaim their country and future. President Trump, maximum pressure is the minimum that needs to be done.

*The opinions in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Crosswalk Headlines.

Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Oleksii Liskonih
Published Date: January 6, 2025

Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity.   She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is author of two books (the latest, A Love Journey with God), public speaker, and columnist. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran, www.MarzisJourney.com.

Marzi also is the founder and president of NEW PERSIA whose mission is to be the voice of persecuted Christians and oppressed women under Islam, expose the lies of the Iranian Islamic regime, and restore the relationships between Persians, Jews, and Christians. www.NewPersia.org