US failed in anti-Iran pressure policy, found itself stuck: Analyst
An analyst says the US has failed in the “maximum pressure” campaign that it has unleashed against Iran after abandoning the 2015 multinational nuclear deal, adding that Washington is “now stuck” vis-à-vis Tehran because it cannot choose to further escalate the situation for the fear of catastrophic consequences.
“It is clear … that the maximum pressure campaign has failed, it has not brought Iran to its knees; it is not going to bring Iran to its knees. Iran has powerful friends — Russia and China — and they are going to make sure that Iran is not brought to its knees,” George Szamuely, senior research fellow at Global Policy Institute, told Press TV’s The Debate program on Thursday.
“So the US is now stuck. It cannot really escalate to get to an actual, some kind of a military confrontation because that would be just a complete catastrophe … and it would bring [US President Donald] Trump’s reign to an end,” he added.
The comments came after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Iran is determined to reduce more of its commitments under the nuclear deal in response to the US’s exit until the Islamic Republic achieves the desired results.
Tehran chose to take those counter-measures after the European signatories to the deal — France, Britain and Germany — failed to fulfill their legal commitments to Iran under the deal by standing up to Washington’s pressure and offsetting its bans.
Szamuely further noted Tehran is probably giving up on the Europeans because if they were serious about keeping the JCPOA, then they would have taken practical steps aimed at guaranteeing Iran’s oil revenues.
Meanwhile, Richard Millet, the other panelist on the program opined that Trump would like to have a deal with Iran, stressing that if Iran came to the table and negotiated a proper agreement, then the Iranian people wouldn’t have to suffer from the sanctions.
“We see him [Trump] go around the world trying to have deals, try to talk. He seems to be a talker … and he would like to do a deal,” he said.
He also noted the problem with the nuclear deal which was signed with then-US President Barack Obama was that it was going to come to an end eventually and Iran was then going to be able to pursue nuclear weapons.
Therefore, he said, Trump is taking a “hard stand” to ensure such a thing does not happen.
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