Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Senior Fellow and director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute.
Articles & Testimony
Thus far, the Obama administration has not fulfilled its pledge to deter and confront external threats to Gulf partners following the nuclear deal.
When the administration set out to sell the Iran deal, it recognized that regional allies would have to be reassured that the United States would not stand idly by and allow Iran to wreak havoc in the region. In May 2015, President Obama invited Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders for a summit at Camp David, where he pledged that the U.S. would stand by its GCC partners in the face of Iran's "destabilizing activities in the region."
But Iran's aggressive tactics continued unabated, so the president reiterated his commitment eight months later, saying, "We remain steadfast in opposing Iran's destabilizing behavior, including against Israel and our Gulf partners and its support for violent proxies in places like Syria and Yemen." But it is now clear, one year since the signing of the Iran deal, that Iran's threatening and destabilizing behavior in the region has not diminished...
