Iranian President Hassan Rouhani predicted a "deluge" of drugs, refugees and attacks on the West if U.S. sanctions weaken Iran's ability to contain them.
"I warn those who impose sanctions that if Iran's ability to fight drugs and terrorism are affected ... you will not be safe from a deluge of drugs, asylum seekers, bombs and terrorism," Rouhani said in a speech carried live on state television.
So Iran is threatening to open the floodgates of drug smuggling, refugees and terrorism to plague Europe if Europe fails to find a way for Iran to bypass American financial sanctions.
I had assumed the Iranian threat was implicitly nuclear given that our sanctions are over Iran's nuclear program. Although I did say Iran is a non-nuclear threat, too.
But I may have been hasty in that nuclear assumption. Or just premature. Or the previous threat may have been more specific to Europe, I suppose.
And a side note. Mexico learned that providing a highway for the drug trade eventually harmed Mexico a great deal; just as Syria discovered that providing a highway for jihadis going to Iraq turned around and bit them--hard.
But Iran may figure the immediate threat of sanctions outweighs the long-range threat of collateral damage.
