US Sanctions Have Toughened Iranian Resolve: EX-US Senate Candidate
A former US Senate candidate said US sanctions against Iran have failed to have any impact on the Islamic Republic's progress and they, in fact, have “toughened the Iranian resolve”.
“Sanctions are an act of war. It is important for the American public and the world to understand this. President Trump has absolutely no legitimate reason to be doing this, except that his 'America First' campaign promises of 2016 which involved keeping the United States out of worthless Middle East conflicts, have been belied by the complete hijacking of his Administration by Zionist Neo-Conservative Agents more interested in serving Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel than in obeying the Constitution of the United States, International Law, or the needs and interests of the average American who voted for him,” Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and pastor in San Antonio, Texas, told Tasnim.
He added, "To me, the sanctions have only toughened Iranian resolve.”
Mark Dankof is a broadcaster for The Ugly Truth Podcast. Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, the son of a United States Air Force Colonel, he graduated from Valparaiso University in 1977 and from Chicago's Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 1983. In recent years, he has pursued post-graduate work in systematic theology and theological German at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Formerly the 36th District Chairman of the Republican Party in King County/Seattle and later an elected delegate to Texas State Republican Conventions in 1994 and 1996, he entered the United States Senate race in Delaware in 2000 as the nominated candidate of the Constitution Party against Democratic candidate Thomas Carper and Republican incumbent William Roth.
Following is the full text of the interview:
Tasnim: US President Donald Trump on Monday announced new sanctions on Iran as part of its pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic. They target the office of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Iran's foreign minister and senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). What is your take on the sanctions?
Dankof: Sanctions are an act of war. It is important for the American public and the world to understand this. President Trump has absolutely no legitimate reason to be doing this, except that his "America First" campaign promises of 2016 which involved keeping the United States out of worthless Middle East conflicts, have been belied by the complete hijacking of his Administration by Zionist Neo-Conservative Agents more interested in serving Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel than in obeying the Constitution of the United States, International Law, or the needs and interests of the average American who voted for him. I was one of them, who saw him as the only possible alternative to a Hillary Clinton Presidency, or the candidacies of open Neo-Conservatives and Israel Worshipers in the GOP who opposed Mr. Trump in the 2016 primaries. Both the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party and virtually all of the GOP is explicitly pledged to continue these interventions militarily and with Iran specifically. As the Trump Presidency continues, it only sadly underscores that he is also their tool of control, even as the only American Presidential contender of my lifetime sincerely committed to putting this Fifth Column out of business in the United States was clearly Pat Buchanan in the GOP Presidential Primaries in 1992 and 1996.
One could not find a worse foreign policy and national security advisors to an American President than John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, just to name two. Their agenda for a Greater Israel and the aggrandizement of the worst elements in the American National Security establishment is transparently obvious. When Trump named them to their respective posts, it became undeniable that the Fix Was In.
Tasnim: President Trump and senior US officials have repeatedly said that Washington is ready to talk to Iran about a new nuclear deal without any preconditions. It seems the Trump administration by imposing new sanctions on Tehran is facing political confusion. What do you think? Do you believe that the administration is closing the path to a diplomatic solution with Iran?
Dankof: Trump is speaking absolutely incoherent nonsense on this. I would use a better word to describe his rhetoric than nonsense, only it would not be appropriate for Tasnim readers. David Stockman is completely correct on this subject. Mr. Trump has 1) unilaterally scuttled a JCPOA/P5+1 deal with Iran that secured a verifiable deal on Iran's nuclear program that served the interest of every nation who signed the multilateral agreement. (Stockman is correct when he says that we must fairly say that this was the one quantifiable achievement of the Obama Presidency in foreign policy, in bringing the United States into this treaty.) 2) Iran's absolute compliance with the terms of the treaty has been verified by the International Atomic Energy Commission and the American intelligence community itself. 3) Mr. Trump's unilateral abrogation of the deal with Iran, the subsequent imposition of draconian economic sanctions, and the deployment of more American military assets to the region, simply accentuates that the President of the United States is being dragged around by the nose by Netanyahu and the most extreme Zionist forces extant, even as the word of the United States and its President can no longer be trusted by the leadership of Iran or the other nations who are signatories to the deal. That the President would now be calling on Iran to "talk without preconditions" is preposterous given this history. Clearly, the Administration has closed the path to a diplomatic solution with Iran, as it is the former and not the latter, which has destroyed an agreement reached through diplomacy and subsequently engaged in a serious of actions with sanctions, deployments, and escalating militaristic rhetoric and threats. It is entirely reminiscent of the actions of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the run-up to war with Japan in World War II, as I indicated in a 2013 presentation to the National Conference of the American Free Press in Austin, Texas entitled, FDR and Pearl Harbor: The Primer for the Zionist Assault on the American Republic and the Nation of Iran.
Tasnim: As you know, most of Iran’s economy has been already targeted by earlier US penalties and, in fact, there is not much left for Washington to target. Do you believe that it is just a theatrical move and that sanctions diplomacy no longer works in face of Iran?
Dankof: To me, the sanctions have only toughened Iranian resolve. This explains the series of False Flag tanker incidents in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman falsely attributed to Iran, but clearly the work of the Trump Neo-Conservatives desperately working in tandem with Israel, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK/MKO), and the Saudi regime. What is terrifying is to ponder what their next act of criminal lunacy might prove to be. Nothing they have done yet has worked.
Tasnim: The new sanctions came after Iran last week shot down a US spy drone that had ventured into Iran’s airspace. President Trump told reporters that the sanctions had nothing to do with the downing of the drone. It seems, however, that the sanctions were imposed in response to the shootdown. What are your thoughts on this?
Dankof: Again, Mr. Trump spouts total nonsense. Obviously, the latest round of sanctions has been imposed because Trump and his Zionist friends are miffed that the Iranians chose to engage in self-defense in downing the RQ-170. Trump is trying to conceal that fact that his bluff has been called in this by suggesting Iran "may have made a mistake" in the downing of the spy craft. It also cost the American taxpayer a "mere" $110 million dollars, simply a pocket change in terms of what an Israeli-Saudi led American foreign policy has already cost the American people, not to mention what it will cost if this nonsense continues, both in money squandered---and more importantly, human lives. That $110 million dollars would have done wonders for farmers in Southwest Iowa and much of Nebraska flooded out by the failed levee on the Missouri River the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has failed to repair since 2011. Most of these folks voted for Mr. Trump. What do they think of his priorities now? Or have they connected-the-dots yet?
The minimal response taken by the Iranians in shooting down the drone which was violating its own airspace under international law was a totally justifiable action. Even more notably, the Iranian military leadership has noted it could have downed an American P8 Orion spycraft with the loss of 35 American lives but chose not to. Mr. Trump needs to think about this, and the lack of wisdom in pushing the envelope with the Iranian government, or with Vladimir Putin who has clearly outfoxed the Zionist Neo-Conservatives in Syria. If Trump thinks his vaunted military geniuses have miscalculated in terms of Iranian resolve and Iranian missile capability, he and his geniuses need to contemplate facing Russian hypersonic missiles in the Middle East, or in Eastern Europe if the United States and NATO continue militarizing Mr. Putin's western border.
Tasnim: Iranian officials are of the opinion that resistance is the best option for the country as they have announced no talks will take place until all Iran’s demands including the complete removal of oil and banking sanctions. Do you believe the continuation of the resistance policy would be a viable option for Tehran?
Dankof: Sadly, I agree with the continuation of the resistance policy. What other alternative does Iran have? It has been the victim of its own honest diplomacy on nuclear programs and power, at the hands of a Zionist Beast which now holds a gun to the head of the Iranian government and the Iranian people, even as The Beast indicates its desire to "negotiate without preconditions." Ask the Palestinians where "negotiations" have gotten them since 1948, and in the first years of the Trump Presidency.
And Americans against the New World Order and Zionism, who want their beloved Old American Republic back and the end of The American Empire, need to ask what voting for Donald Trump in 2016 has gotten them since.
We are together in the most dangerous and volatile situation, with evil forces aligned against us both.
Source: Tasnim