Author: Ali Akbar Dareini
Affiliation: Center for Strategic Studies Tehran
Organization/Publisher: Aljazeera Centre For Studies.
Date/Place: February 13, 2020, Doha
Type of Literature: Report
Number of Pages: 15
Link: https://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/thick-cloud-us-iran-climate
Keywords: Soleimani, Sanctions, Retaliation, Maximum Pressure.
Brief:
The door of dialogue was closed shut once General Soleimani was assassinated. While Trump endangered International Order and came close to open conflict with Iran, it was Iran’s temperance that stopped this from happening. The US has been waging an economic war and imposing conditions with the aim of pushing Iran to capitulation. But in the post-Soleimani era, the US faces greater difficulties than ever before in imposing its will over the Middle East, with Soleimani’s loyalists seeking revenge against the US and Iran vowing to expel US forces from the region. The “maximum pressure” policy imposed by Trump was intended to either break Iran or change its regime, but reality shows that Iran isn’t backing down. The US Administration doesn’t show any signs of stopping either, refusing to accept any hostile power in the Middle East other than Israeli expansionism. Such strategy has led to much of the chaos in the region. The current US Administration has resorted to bullying even its European allies into triggering the dispute resolution mechanism of the JCPOA, threatening Britain, Germany and France with tariffs, resorting to extortions in order to achieve foreign policy objectives. Whatever plans the US has for the Middle East, it now faces bigger obstacles due to the bullying it practices on Iran and its overall betrayal behavior. Iran may be willing to negotiate if respectful language is used, but it has no reason to hold talks with an administration that speaks through assassination and economic terrorism, and which violated its own signature on the prior multilateral nuclear deal.
By: Omar Fili, CIGA Research Intern
