More than a year ago, the White House hostility against Iran started after the announcement of the withdrawal from the nuclear deal. Though since the start of the "Donald Trump" presidency, sanctions have been imposed more or less even in the time of the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but this trend has grown strongly since last year, especially in recent months.
According to the US officials, the most complete and unprecedented economic sanctions of Washington have been implemented against Tehran. It is not too much to say that the United States has put almost all the economic sectors of Iran under extreme pressure and constraints. Bank and financial services, oil, automotive, petrochemical, energy sector and many high-technology areas along with defense and weapons departments of our country along with the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) have been subject to the US sanctions. Drug entry to the country has been confronted with a variety of restrictions, and even American officials have created limitations for sending humanitarian aid to the flood-hit people in recent months.
On June 25, Trump implemented a range of sanctions in an executive order that has a psychological and political nature, more than economic and financial aspects, and is designed and implemented to influence public opinion and resistance of the people. The sanctioning of the Supreme Leader and structure under him is Washington's latest trick, which, according to senior officials of our country, indicates that Trump's illogical and his strategy is not clear. President Hassan Rouhani also described the measure of the President of the United States as a sign of the White House's mental disability.
This is a sign of the confusion of the Trump government against Iran, in which the White House speaks about negotiations concurrent with sanctions and war as a means of foreign policy without any plans. Another point is that in the new sanctions, there are several military officials and the IRGC officials who have shown that Trump has lost the clue. In other words, when about three months ago, Trump introduced and sanctioned the IRGC as a terrorist organization, in fact, all the commanders and decision-makers and subordinate institutions included it in the list.
It is for these reasons that the president of our country described the recent US actions as stupid and deceptive movements, which are the result of frustration and confusion over Iran.
The sign of this confusion can be seen in the successive changes in the policies against Iran. Indeed, the lack of a clear strategy in the White House's foreign policy has led the United States to pursue a set of stranded policies. Indeed, during the Trump’s era, negotiations, sanctions and war have been some of the strategies that have been unplanned taken as a tool by the American officials.
All this maximum pressure occurs when the President of the United States and White House officials speak about their keen interest in direct talks with Iran and emphasize that diplomatic doors are open to Iran. However, according to the Secretary of the Treasury, the White House, in a matter of days, puts the head of the diplomatic apparatus of our country, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in the sanctions list and in practice blocks any door for negotiation and diplomatic activity. The funny thing is that the US has announced its intention of the two measures to use new leverage to bring Iran back to the negotiating table.
Negotiating with sanction diplomacy
The closure of diplomatic doors is a point not only expressed by Iranian officials, but Western media and analysts also point out this as a consequence of the recent developments in Trump’ behavior.
The CNN noted that these actions of the White House have also questioned Trump's claim to pursue diplomacy and talks with Iran, as Zarif's sanction means closing the door to direct talks with Tehran.
Not only can such a decision not make a better future for the region, but by revealing political contradictions in the United States, the White House will become more isolated and unreliable and strengthen Iran and, therefore, will diminish the hope of peaceful resolution of the issue.
Business Insider website evaluated the new sanctions on Iran as part of Trump's risky strategy, which could lead to a conflict that the US president claims is not following.
The analyst Jan Burmer believes that new sanctions instead of being bumpy are more propagandistic and sonorous, which may lead the two sides to a military confrontation instead of helping Washington achieve its goals.
On the other hand, analysts point out Trump's misconceptions about foreign policy instruments. The spokesman to US President Barack Obama's national security adviser Ned Price said Trump, after leaving the JCPOA, has made a mistake to say he wants to block Iran's nuclear activities.
The reason is that the real purpose of some of the hardline advisers of the president is to increase the pressure on Iran to change its system. According to him, sanctions are not a strategy and cannot be the ultimate goal. Sanctions are a tool to advance policies toward targets. Price stresses, that the problem with the Trump government in the current situation is that hard-liners seek to overthrow the Iranian regime rather than blocking the nuclear program because the JCPOA was accomplishing this task.
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