How Washington Can Influence the Outcome of Protests in Iran

These are heady days in Iran. For more than a week now, thousands of Iranians have rallied publicly against their government, demanding accountability, transparency and an end to the repressive clerical status quo. In the process, they have presented Iran’s radical theocratic regime with one of the most profound challenges to its authority since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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Foreign firms, too, should be put on notice. As experts Mark Dubowitz and Daniel Shapiro have noted, there is already legislation on the books giving the White House the authority to sanction “global entities that supply the Iranian regime with tools of repression and censorship.” These provisions should be utilized prominently by the administration in order to communicate a clear message: if you provide the Islamic Republic with equipment that is subsequently used to quash dissent (from water cannons to rubber bullets to military hardware), you will face concrete economic penalties from the United States.

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