Pressure on Iranian regime 'must be economical and diplomatic as well,' says Trump's Ukraine envoy

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Ukraine envoy Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Keith Kellogg has called for a return to “maximum pressure” on the Iranian regime. 

"These pressures are not just kinetic, just not military force, but they must be economical and diplomatic as well," Kellogg stated on Saturday at a National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) event in Paris, France. The NCRI group is opposed to Iran's ayatollah regime.

Kellogg said while it is possible "to change Iran for the better," he warned that there was a small window of opportunity.

"We must exploit the weakness we now see. The hope is there, so must too be the action," he assessed. 

NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi concurred, stressing that the power balance in the Middle East had shifted against the ayatollah regime over the past year.

"It is time for Western governments to abandon past policies and stand with the Iranian people this time," Rajavi said. 

Iran's current weakness and vulnerability are attributed to the significant blows dealt by the IDF to its terror proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. In addition, the substantial degradation of Hezbollah’s military capabilities played a key role in the downfall of the Syrian Assad regime in December.

Last month, Trump’s incoming national security advisor, Mike Waltz, expressed a similar view regarding U.S. polict towards the Iranian regime. 

“You’re going to see a huge shift on Iran,” Waltz vowed. 

“We have to constrain their cash. We have to constrain their oil. We have to go back to maximum pressure, number one, which was working under the first Trump administration,” Waltz said. 

Iranian Brig.-Gen. Behrouz Esbati recently admitted that the collapse of the Assad regime dealt a severe blow to the Iranian regime. 

“I don’t consider losing Syria something to be proud of,” Esbati said, according to a leak that was published by the Swiss-based Iranian news outlet Abdi Media. “We were defeated and defeated very badly, we took a very big blow and it’s been very difficult.”

For years, leaders of Hezbollah and Iran played a critical role in backing the Assad regime. However, the ongoing Iranian-led terrorist proxy war against Israel eventually backfired as the IDF eliminated thousands of Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists, including senior leaders, and destroyed much of their military capabilities. 

While Trump aims to avoid prolonged military conflicts, he has pledged to reinstate the hawkish Iran policies of his first presidency, applying intense financial and political pressure on the Iranian regime. The primary goal of this strategy is to compel Tehran to abandon its ballistic missile program and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, which pose a threat to Israel and the broader Middle East.