WASHINGTON – The U.S. special envoy to Iran said Thursday evening that New restrictions When it comes to Iran policy, the Trump administration did not represent the outgoing president’s efforts to put President-elect Joe Biden in the box, set up by the Tehran government.
Elliott Abram said during a George Mason University webcast, “It’s a completely wrong way to read,” adding that the sanctions are part of a “maximum pressure” campaign that has been part of the Trump administration’s policy since May 2001, when the president announced The United States was abandoning a nuclear deal with Iran that was being negotiated by the Obama administration.
“We have one president at a time, and this term is not three and a half years but four years, so we will continue this policy until the end of the administration,” Abrams said. “I don’t understand the idea that we’re boxing them.”
Instead of limiting the Biden administration’s options, new sanctions give the incoming team a “card to play” in any future negotiations with Iran, he said.
Others see the situation differently.
The provocation of sanctions against Iranian companies recently announced by the Trump administration was being imposed in the nuclear deal with “barely hidden intentions to make it difficult for the Biden administration to return,” said Robert Melay, who helped negotiate as a senior. Adviser to President Barack Obama on Middle East issues.
“They are not hiding the fact that the imposition of these sanctions hinders diplomacy” and makes it more difficult for Biden to rejoin the nuclear deal, Melay Lee said Thursday during a panel discussion hosted by the Center for New Americans. “It’s going to be easy, I think,” said President Biden. “I’m definitely lifting them because they weren’t at this level. These sanctions weren’t imposed for legitimate reasons. They were definitely imposed. It’s hard to undo what President Trump did. Purpose of creation.
The Biden team will have to consider each restriction on its own merits and differentiate between “those who are legal and those who are not.” “I don’t think this is a vague obstacle to a return to the JCPOA,” or the formal formal name of the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Plan, Action.
If any conflict with Tehran erupts during the weak days of the Trump administration, it will make it almost impossible for the Biden team to return quickly to diplomacy with Iran, Malay acknowledged. In addition to the sanctions, a series of recent events have led to speculation that the Trump administration – or perhaps Israel – is trying to fight, or at least prepare for, the end of Trump’s term.
The Department of Defense announced on November 27 that aircraft carrier Namitz and his strike group had returned to the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, a series of senior U.S. national security officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, have visited the Middle East in recent weeks, and the United States will reduce the number of its embassy staff in Baghdad before the Iranian spy agency. January 2 anniversary of the assassination of.
Clearly, the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist on November 27, which is widely blamed on Israel, has pushed the region to the brink.
From the Israeli point of view, the killing of the scientist could be justified by sending a clear message of certainty to those involved in Iran’s nuclear program, “that they are not immune,” Male said. But, if the assassination provoked Iran to react in a way that “started an escalatory crisis, yes, it would bring back diplomacy under the Biden administration, which was more difficult.”
“Imagine if Iran responds by attacking American troops in Iran or by launching a terrorist attack against Israel. “It’s hard to see how President Biden will say on January 21 … ‘Now we’re going back to diplomacy,” Maleli said.
But Trump officials have denied that the current administration is trying to start a conflict with Iran.
“While there is no question that there can always be a spark,” which sets up such a conflict, Abrams said.
Another senior Trump national security official told Yahoo News that the guidance from the top echelons of the administration was simple: “Don’t go to war in the Middle East unless the Iranians attack our people, and if they are stupid enough to do so.” , We are going to put a hammer on them. “
The senior official dismissed speculation that Trump was trying to get Iran into the dispute. “I do not fully understand the statement that he is trying to get out and start a war,” the official said, adding that doing so would “destroy his legacy if the conflict does not start during his administration.”
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