By Struan Stevenson

WITH only days to go before President Trump must decide if he will grant the Iranian regime compliance with the nuclear deal on October 15, the sands of time are rapidly running out for Tehran’s fascist rulers. President Trump told a meeting of the United Nations in September that the deal was “an embarrassment” to the United States. If Mr Trump refuses to certify Iran’s compliance with the deal, which seems highly likely, Congress will have 60 days to decide whether to reapply the crippling sanctions lifted by Barack Obama after the deal was signed. It seems reasonable to assume that the deal will have been consigned to the dustbin of history before this year ends.

There is increasing speculation that the Iranian regime is financing North Korea’s nuclear programme, despite worldwide condemnation and the imposition of heavy sanctions against Kim Jong-un’s rogue state even by China. On September 23 President Trump tweeted: “Iran just test-fired a ballistic missile capable of reaching Israel. They are also working with North Korea.” Former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton added that when Iran wants nuclear weapons it simply has to write a cheque and hand it to the North Koreans. The axis of evil is not a metaphor, he said, it’s a reality.

The US National Security Adviser – General HR McMaster – said in September: “The President has already declared that the Iranian regime is not living up to its obligation. They are certainly not living up to the spirit of this agreement. Instead of contributing to regional peace and security, as the deal calls for, Iran is using proxy forces and a terrorist network to foment violence and victimise innocents across the greater Middle East. The Iranian regime is seeding these networks with increasingly destructive weapons as they try to establish a bridge from Iran to Lebanon and Syria.”

Mr Obama’s policy of appeasement towards Iran was a huge mistake. The nuclear deal was absurdly one-sided, giving endless concessions to the Iranian regime. Its leniency made it easy for the mullahs continually to run a cart and horses through the terms of the agreement with virtual impunity. This in turn inspired the North Koreans to accelerate their own nuclear weapons programme, encouraged by the apparent weakness of the West. There is now a growing awareness that the best way of dealing with North Korea is by taking tough action against Iran.

The US has at long last recognised the Iranian regime as the Godfather of terror. It has recognised that the mullahs are behind Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the brutal Shi’ia militias in Iraq, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon. This is the real Iran under the theocratic and fascist rule of the mullahs, whose so-called “moderate” president Hassan Rouhani the West believes it can do deals with. Mr Rouhani is in charge of a government which has executed more than 3,500 people since he took office in 2013.

The West’s policy of appeasement towards Iran has come to a shuddering stop and the world now looks to the US, EU and UN to show leadership and determination in backing the 80 million beleaguered Iranians who ache and pray for the removal of this evil regime and the restoration of human rights, women’s rights, freedom, justice and democracy to this long-suffering nation. Sunday, October 15 will be a historic day and all eyes will be on the White House. The world waits for President Trump to tear up Mr Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal and to tell the tyrants in Tehran that their days are numbered.

Struan Stevenson is president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA). He was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). He is an international lecturer on the Middle East.