'Maximum Pressure' Has Helped to Make Iran More Authoritarian

Hard-liners in Iran have benefited enormously from the “maximum pressure” campaign that is still going on.

Iran’s presidential election takes place tomorrow, and the hard-line candidate Ebrahim Raisi is expected to prevail. That is partly because of genuine dissatisfaction with Rouhani’s government and the conditions created by the U.S. “maximum pressure” campaign, but it is mostly because the fix is in so that Raisi wins. The field of candidates was restric…