DON’T REWARD IRANIAN VIOLENCE BY ENDING ECONOMIC SANCTIONS: The column begins with a look at the Navy’s recent seizure of a “stateless” dhow smuggling weapons via the Arabian Sea.

To quote the U.S. Navy’s official announcement, on May 6 the cruiser USS Monterey “seized an illicit shipment of weapons from a stateless dhow in international waters of the North Arabian Sea.” The list of weaponry aboard the dhow included advanced Russian-made anti-tank missiles, around 3,000 Chinese assault rifles, several hundred light machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launchers and “advanced optical sights.”

On a battlefield, those weapons set could arm a light infantry brigade of 4,000 soldiers — or guerrilla fighters.

More:

Smugglers prowl the north Arabian Sea (an arm of the Indian Ocean), moving narcotics, stolen electronics, even Persian rugs. But smuggling a calculated weapons mix like the USN seized?

Iran’s dictators scream plausible deniability but their corrupt state planned, assembled and shipped the weapons.

Why? The junta is intrinsically violent.

Read the entire essay.