David Yaghoubian, a professor of history at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) said in an interview with IRNA on Sunday that the United States’ West Asian foreign policy is still guided by the interests of the leadership of the apartheid state of Israel and the Israeli lobby.
“Therefore,” Yaghoubian said, “the Biden administration has been too weak domestically to live up to its campaign promises regarding a swift return to the JCPOA and lacks the creativity and political will to create mechanisms whereby the US can guarantee that it will maintain its obligations under the JCPOA and international law.
As a result of the close 2020 election and subsequent calls of fraud, followed by the tumult of the January 6, 2021 riots and aftermath, President Biden was in an already weak position domestically when he assumed the presidency, the history professor said when he was asked on the effect of the US internal politics on President Biden’s approach to the nuclear agreement with Iran.
Yaghoubian further explained: “The combination of his administration’s political weakness, fear of being labeled “soft on Iran” by neoconservative and liberal interventionist warmongers of both the GOP and the DNC, and the ever-increasing power of the Israeli lobby in determining US policy in West Asia have been the primary influences and constraints on his approach.”
Biden’s weakness internally and fear of Republican as well as Democratic backlash concerning Iran have been critically important factors to delay the US return to the agreement, he noted, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal which the US left in 2018.
Asked if Biden was avoiding a US guarantee to leave the door open for a possible US withdrawal in the future, he answered that he believed the primary hindrance to a viable guarantee is more a product of the “agreement incapability” of a dying and increasingly frantic empire used to dictating to the globe further exacerbated by domestic partisan rivalry, alongside a bipartisan “Washington consensus” that the interests and security of apartheid Israel are more important than stability, peace, and adherence to international law.
On the possible influence of the energy crisis in Europe influence on President Biden’s approach to reviving the JCPOA, Yaghoubian linked it to the employment of illegal punitive sanctions to achieve a political goal by the US and Western countries.
“Sanctions against Iranian, Venezuelan, as well as Russian oil are counterproductive, and thus returning to the JCPOA as Biden had promised as presidential candidate will simultaneously work to ameliorate the global energy crisis and bring the US back into compliance with international law,” he added.
The professor said that the combination of Iran’s consistency, legality, and the ability to defend itself from attack has defeated US attempts to pressure and manipulate Iran via sanctions, bullying, and threats.
“Even the most die-hard American imperialists have ultimately been forced to recognize their attempts to link the JCPOA to other issues and produce a ‘better and stronger agreement’ for the US have abjectly failed alongside so called ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions,” he added.
Asked about the possible internal impacts of joining and not joining the JCPOA by the Biden administration, Yaghoubian said: “A return to the JCPOA was one of Joe Biden’s central campaign promises. Considering the long list of domestic and foreign policy initiatives he promised to pursue on the campaign trail and has subsequently failed to deliver on, the serious ramifications a return to the JCPOA would have for regional peace and stability in West Asia, as well as the impact a return to the deal could have on the global energy crisis and economy, Biden will certainly increase his standing amongst those who elected him if he is successful in reviving US participation in the agreement.”
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