Need to Avoid Playing Into US Hands

EghtesadOnline: While the United States is seeking to prompt Tehran to show an extreme reaction, Iranian authorities need to remain alert not to fall into this trap, according to an analyst.

News ID: ۷۴۷۲۶۵

07 May 2019

"By exerting extensive pressure on Iran, the Americans are looking for ways to enrage Iran. We need to beware of being tricked into playing this game and walking into its dangerous trap," Mohammad Sadeq Kharrazi, a former diplomat and expert on foreign policy, wrote in a recent article published by the Iranian Diplomacy website.

President Donald Trump's administration has taken a hard line toward Iran by withdrawing the US from the 2015 nuclear deal (formally the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) last year and reimposing harsh sanctions. It has been intensifying its pressure on a step-by-step basis ever since.

After placing restrictions on various sectors of Iran's international trade, Trump imposed its most significant sanctions on the Iranian oil sector last November, but granted temporary waivers to eight countries to prevent volatility in the global market, Financial Tribune reported.

Last month, the White House announced that it would not reissue the exemptions after their expiration on May 2, aiming to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero.

In an unprecedented move, his administration also blacklisted Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization in late April.

Washington's latest measure was to revoke two of the seven nuclear sanctions waivers that allow Russia, China and European nations to conduct civilian nuclear cooperation with Iran.

Kharrazi noted that these moves by the hardline US administration are aimed at prompting Iran to take a reckless action, "from quitting the nuclear deal to creating conflicts in the Persian Gulf".

"For America, destruction is a normal affair; see what it did in Iraq and Afghanistan. It all depends on our wisdom not to be dragged into America's dangerous game," he wrote.

Defensible Approach

Despite all the US pressure, Iran has remained committed to the nuclear deal, attempting to mitigate the effects of American sanctions with the aid of other parties to the deal.

Certain groups inside Iran have criticized the policy, calling for reciprocal action in response to the US withdrawal and hostile measures.

Kharrazi, however, wrote in his article that Tehran cannot be blamed for this approach, because JCPOA is a deal that boasts international support, carries the signature of major countries and has been approved by the United Nations Security Council.

"JCPOA is an international agreement from which only one of the parties has unilaterally walked away and this has nothing to do with Iran," he wrote.

Trump has shown that it is not committed to anything, neither to JCPOA, nor to any other global deal, he wrote, citing his withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement and a number of other treaties.