US bent on doing utmost damage to Iran: Analyst

While the United States has acknowledged that Iran complies with its obligations under the nuclear deal with the P5+1 group, Washington has leveled fresh accusations against Tehran. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has claimed the Islamic Republic is behind the destabilization of the Middle East. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has slammed American hostile policy toward Iran, urging the White House to abide by its commitments under the nuclear agreement. To discuss the issue, Press TV has interviewed Sara Flounders, co-director of the International Action Center from New York, and Michael Lane, president of the American Institute for Foreign Policy from Washington.

Flounders criticized Washington’s foreign policy on the Islamic Republic, noting, “The US is so determined to do as much damage as they can to Iran.”

Washington’s attempt to “reintroduce” sanctions on Iran is “duplicitous” and “cynical,” said the analyst, stressing that such a move would be very dangerous because “it comes at a time when the Trump administration is making wild threats around the world.”

“The idea that they (the American authorities) are going to reinforce the sanctions whether Iran is in compliance or not that is pretty outrageous,” she added.

Iran and the P5+1 countries — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany — signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Iran has carried out its part of commitments under the JCPOA, but the Iranian officials complained that the US has tried to dodge its obligations.

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According to Flounders, the Americans “admit that Iran is in compliance on all matters in what was negotiated with the P5+1” but they seek to put pressure on the country anyway as Washington pursues a policy of threats against all independent nations, where US interests are not met.

The US bases its ties with other states on in its personal interests, she argued, adding that, in foreign policy, the Americans raise questions such as, “Is this in the interest of the US military and oil corporations, is this in the interest of the US domination and is this in the interest of the US control of the whole region?”

Rejecting the allegation made by Tillerson on Iran’s role in the Middle East region, she underlined that the United States and its staunch allies have played a major part in destabilizing the region for several decades.

“The destabilizing force in the region is absolutely US military,” Flounders said. Washington is allies in the region “such as the corrupt, the feudal Saudi monarchy and the [Persian] Gulf states in order to carry out its policies,” she added.

The US has bombed eight countries in recent history and “this is international terrorism and it becomes routine to make threats, nuclear threats and threats of other weapons, sanctions threats, threats of interference and coups, economic sabotage,” she said.

For his part, Lane described Trump’s statements as propaganda “for public consumption,” saying the president had vowed to tear up the nuclear agreement during his election campaign, but it did not happen.

The analyst also said that since the nuclear deal has not been ratified by Congress and it is an executive order by the former president, Barack Obama, the Trump administration could have stopped respecting the agreement.

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