Solidarity with the Iranian people is rising in the U.S. Congress. Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) introduced a bill on the evening of April 2 calling for “maximum support” to the Iranian people. The Maximum Support Act is a bipartisan measure that seeks to advance practical steps, not just rhetorical admonishments, to back the dissenting Iranian population against its theocratic regime. The bill comes amid a larger legislative package introduced by the Republican Study Committee codifying various elements of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy toward Tehran.
Initially conceived by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the National Union for Democracy in Iran, an Iranian-American advocacy organization in Washington, DC, the term “maximum support” has become a catch-all phrase now used by analysts, activists, political organizations, and even members of the Iranian opposition to describe measures Washington could take to support the Iranian people while imposing tough sanctions against the Iranian government.
Protests in Iran Have Grown in Scale and Scope
By signing National Security Presidential Memorandum-2 (NSPM-2) in February, President Donald Trump restored the coercive and punitive measures against Tehran from his first term.
Since 2017, Iran has witnessed an unprecedented level of protest activity beginning with the urban and rural poor — traditional bastions of regime support — that fast expanded across the country. These protests torpedoed the conventional wisdom that Western pressure on Tehran would lead Iranians to rally around the regime and signaled the population’s move away from attempts to reform its political system to wholesale efforts to change the government in its entirety.
To avoid getting caught flat-footed in the face of more protests in Iran, which continued into the Biden administration and culminated in the 2022-2023 “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, Washington will need policies to build on the rhetorical support previously offered. Providing this can help level the playing field between a regime armed to the teeth and an increasingly dissatisfied Iranian population.
Calibrating Maximum Support With U.S. Policy
Without getting ahead of President Trump, who has thus far shied away from an overt regime change approach toward the Islamic Republic, maximum support can weaken the regime’s hold in Iran while expanding resources available to protesting Iranians to better contest their government.
Specifically, the Maximum Support Act calls for a series of enhanced internet security measures allowing for greater communication and coordination between Iranian protestors. It would also facilitate Iranians’ ability to access the outside world by providing virtual private networks (VPN) in the face of internet filtering. Similarly, the bill would provide satellite-to-cell technology aimed at circumventing the government’s routine internet blackouts.
Moreover, the bill calls for a strategy to facilitate and manage regime defections aimed at gutting the regime’s will to continue its heavy-handed crackdowns. It also contains an asset forfeiture and redistribution program that uses illicitly generated Iranian funds in U.S. jurisdiction to support humanitarian assistance and non-violent protests.
Additionally, the bill calls for terrorism sanctions against the regime’s transnational criminal repression apparatus — such as its Ministry of Intelligence — which has been deployed against Iranian dissidents at home and in the diaspora.
Toward a More Harmonized Iran Policy
As Washington again moves to shrink the resources available to the Islamic Republic to engage in foreign aggression and domestic repression, it will need policies that provide wind beneath the wings of the most pro-American and pro-Israeli population in the Muslim Middle East.
This is essential not just for the Trump administration as it looks for levers to bring the Islamic Republic to the nuclear negotiating table but also to develop a more holistic Iran policy that marries American strategy and values and directly addresses the challenge posed by the arsonist behind the Middle East’s many fires. The importance of such a policy is set to grow regardless of Iran’s continued rejection of American diplomatic overtures.
Behnam Ben Taleblu is senior director of the Iran Program and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from Behnam and FDD, please subscribeHERE. Follow Behnam on X@therealBehnamBT. Follow FDD on X@FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on foreign policy and national security.
Issues:
Iran Iran Human Rights Iran Sanctions