The Donald Trump administration is moving to increase pressure on Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan by appointing an Iran expert to head the US Consulate in Erbil. The move comes as armed Iranian Kurdish opposition groups have intensified their attacks on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) positions in western Iran.
Washington replaced Ken Gross, the outgoing consul general, with Steven Fagin, director of the Office of Iranian Affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. The appointment appears to be part of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s effort to dent Iran’s ability to operate in the region amid the looming reimposition of US sanctions. The United States seeks to exert “unprecedented financial pressure” on Iran until it forces Tehran to make a “tangible, demonstrable and sustained shift” in policy, Pompeo said in a recent letter, co-authored with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to the European Union. On July 22, Pompeo delivered a speech to a California audience, including a number of Iranian Americans, in which he attacked the Islamic Republic, comparing its leadership to a mafia.
Neighbors of Iran are under extreme pressure from the United States to stop trading with it or face consequences. “This time around, the Treasury sanctions will be enforced very, very aggressively and very comprehensibly,” US Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea told reporters in Ankara on July 20 following official meetings there. “I think the Turkish government understands our position on that.”
As director of the Office of Iranian Affairs, which has several outposts around the world, including in Istanbul and Dubai, Fagin was responsible for developing, coordinating, recommending and executing US policy on Iran. He is also familiar with Iraq, Iran's important neighbor to the west, having been posted to the US Embassy in Baghdad prior to 2015 as director of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Office. Al-Monitor unsuccessfully sought comment on his new appointment from the State Department.
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