A New Dawn on the World Stage: How Trump Will Deal with Iran

Just days after Donald Trump's inauguration, Iran launched a ballistic missile test, violating a U.N. resolution. A quick White House response showed Iran and the world it's not business as usual in Washington.

A ballistic missile launch in late January may have been Iran's way of testing the reaction time of the new Trump administration. It didn't take long to find out.

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“Putting Iran on notice is making good use of the bully pulpit and not letting Iran off the hook,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

After the ballistic missile test, Fox News reported that Iran launched a short-range missile, but just days ago Iran removed another ballistic missile from its launch pad.   

“It remains to be seen if that was a direct response to the Trump administration saying Iran was on notice or if it was a technical issue … that made them remove the missile, but I think Iran should be cautious,” Taleblu said.

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“The Islamic Republic is virulently anti-Semitic,” Taleblu said. “When it tested ballistic missiles in March of 2014, on one of them was the phrase that said in Persian and Hebrew Israel must be washed off the pages of history or the pages of time.”

Ten years ago Diker warned of the looming Iranian threat.

“It's like an octopus spreading its tentacles, destabilizing almost every country in the Middle East except Israel,” he said. 

And the end goal is to eventually threaten the United States.

“It targets U.S. allies in the region – its U.S. partners in the region – and seeks to unravel the U.S. national goals in the region,” Taleblu explained. “It wants to change the balance of power that has arrayed against Iran in the Persian Gulf.”

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