Most of Iran’s oil resources are located in the minority Kurdish, Luri and Arab regions of western Iran and much of Iran’s natural gas resources are located in the Persian Gulf Arab region of Iran and in its territorial waters. Depriving Tehran control over its minority regions will therefore deprive the Khomeinist regime of most income from export of fossil fuels.
A no-fly zone over Iran will at best bring down the Iranian regime within a short period of time but will in any case deprive Tehran control over its regional majorities. This will leave Tehran in control over some half of Iran’s citizens. Liberating Iran’s oil and natural gas resources and thus depriving Tehran of critical income will force the regime to cut spending on its military and make it more difficult to spend money abroad on foreign militias. Depriving Iran of most of their current fossil fuel resources will be a heavy blow indeed to the regime.