‘Biden fomenting Trump-style crisis with Iran by weaponizing sanctions’

A journalist and political commentator says the administration of new US President Joe Biden is using the same Trump-style “coercive diplomacy” to attain more concessions from Iran beyond the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement, and that it is using sanctions as a weapon to achieve that goal. 

Speaking to Press TV from Brooklyn on Tuesday, Max Perry said Biden believes his predecessor, Donald Trump, gave Iran “diplomatic chips” by withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear agreement, and is now trying to coerce Tehran into stopping the retaliatory measures it has been taking under Article 36 of the accord.

“Biden seems intent on using the sanctions as a weapon against Iran’s bargaining chip. As a result, it’s precipitating another US-Iran crisis that could become as severe as that during the previous administration, even though the defeat of Donald Trump was ostensibly supposed to signal a change in US policy toward Iran,” he said.

He added that the Biden administration is resorting to “coercive diplomacy” to be able to gain further concessions from Iran that exceed the terms of the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was abandoned by Trump in 2018.

“The Biden regime is trying to force Iran to concede the leverage it gained when Trump pulled out of the agreement and regain the upper hand through forceful persuasion,” he emphasized.

The analyst believed that it is “completely reasonable” that Iran has already made it clear that it would not return to JCPOA compliance until the sanctions are lifted as the country held up its end of the bargain and was in compliance with the deal’s provisions for a year after the US's withdrawal.

The future of the JCPOA has been in doubt since May 2018, when the US under ex-president Trump pulled out of the agreement and imposed the “toughest ever” sanctions on Iran as part of his so-called “maximum pressure,” which tried in vain to force Iran back to the negotiating table for talks on a “better deal.”

Iran continued to comply with the deal for a year after the US’s withdrawal. Despite throwing verbal support behind the JCPOA, the European parties to the deal — France, Britain and Germany — ultimately succumbed to Washington’s pressure and failed to fulfill their contractual commitments to Tehran, mainly by confronting the American sanctions.

That promoted Tehran to begin a set of retaliatory measures in several stages as part of its legal rights stipulated in Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA. The latest such measure was the halt in the implementation of the Additional Protocol, which was required by a parliament-adopted law.

Biden has repeatedly spoken of a willingness to rejoin the Iran deal, but, in practice, he has so far been sticking with Trump’s futile pressure campaign. Washington says Tehran should return to full compliance with the deal before the US comes back.

Iran, however, says the US should first lift all the sanctions put in place under the Trump administration before the Islamic Republic returns to full compliance.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Sunday that the United States must first lift all sanctions it has imposed on Tehran after unilaterally withdrawing from the JCPOA before the Islamic Republic would return to full compliance with its commitments under the deal.

Asked if the continuation of the so-called maximum pressure policy against Iran would lead to more mistrust, the commentator said there is absolutely no reason for Tehran to trust Washington even with a change of administration in the US.

“The new administration has made it clear it is in no rush to return to the JCPOA and the fact that Biden is actually continuing the maximum pressure strategy of the previous administration. at the end of the day US policy does not change no matter who occupied the White House,” Parry said.

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