Speaking in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, Diako Hosseini referred to the anti-Iran measures of the Trump administration on the final days of presence in the White House and said: The main purpose of imposing the new sanctions seems to be to minimize the condition and make it as difficult as possible for the next US administration to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and keep most of the sanctions imposed during the said period in place.

Trump’s New Sanctions, Laying Mines on the Way Back to JCPOA

Saying that they are ostensibly arguing that by doing so they are trying to provide the Biden administration with more opportunities to have access to pressure levers in negotiating with Iran, he added: In fact, their objective is a kind of mine-laying against Mr. Biden’s administration on its way back to the JCPOA.

The expert on international affairs said: In Mr. Trump’s United States, it has been well understood that maximum pressure, despite all the damage it has done to the Iranian economy, has not led to the desired outcome, which is accepting to return back to the negotiating table. Therefore, today this administration and its policy makers are under heavy pressure due to such failure; thus a large part of this project, which we see under the title of new sanctions and provocations, is related to making it difficult to return to JCPOA, not only in economic fields but also in political areas.

Attempts to Further Destabilize Iran-US Political Atmosphere

Hosseini stressed: The Trump team is trying to bring the political relations between Iran and the United States to a stage of bitterness and tension, the intensity of which does not allow Mr. Biden to be able to design a successful diplomacy with Iran. This is actually their main target.

The analyst of the Center for Strategic Studies of President’s Office referred to some US military moves in the Persian Gulf and said: It does not seem that the United States intends to look for an excuse to go into war with Iran. Of course, if they are convinced that a war with Iran can have a very limited scope, that is to say, a well-defined and specific military confrontation in terms of location and time, with the sole purpose of poisoning the political atmosphere of Iran-US relations, they would not hesitate for a single moment, but there are strong deterrents against them.

He added: The main obstacle in this way is that no one can be sure that any direct military confrontation between Iran and the United States will remain limited, and there is this strong perception that such a confrontation can quickly get out of control. This could be very damaging to an administration which is leaving the White House, and to Trump, who has claimed to be a staunch opponent of war. Especially since Mr. Trump probably intends to run for president in 2024 and such a bad legacy when he leaves the White House could completely destroy his political outlook.

The expert on international affairs, saying that at least Mr. Trump himself is not so interested in dealing with Iran, noted: Of course, this does not mean that some extremists in the United States who held positions during that period and had influence in the State Department or the US National Security Council do not want that to happen. That is to say, those who think more of Israel’s interests and have little interest in Mr. Trump’s election campaign but have that passion and interest, and if the atmosphere is right, will be happy to see such a military confrontation take shape.

Emphasizing that we must be vigilant in the remaining days so that unnecessary tensions between Iran and the United States would not arise, Hosseini continued: There are those in the United States who are looking for war and will not accept any responsibility for such a war. We need to know that they have a psychological complex with Iran that has not been sufficiently satisfied in those three years, and not only has not been satisfied but in some ways has failed.

He added: This group has a very high motivation in the final weeks to be able to destroy the atmosphere as much as possible. The most important thing is to make sure that the militants within Mr. Trump’s administration do not achieve their main target in the remaining few weeks.