Iran’s nuclear program is one of the most important issues of US foreign policy at this time. This is not only so under a new US administration. There is also much speculation about the possibility that current President Donald Trump will end his presidential term with a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Iranian mullahs worry about it. The killing of top nuclear scientist Muhsin Fahrizadeh elicited angry reactions from the mullahs, but made them worry even more.
Indeed, President Trump has a serious motive for this scenario, given the failure of subjugating the mullahs with a tougher sanctions mechanism. The latter takes a long time to achieve its objectives, especially with regimes that do not care about the suffering from sanctions and see their survival as evidence of what they describe as firmness and resistance.
Iran’s mullahs pursued a strategy of appeasement with Trump, hoping that a new White House resident would come to change his policy. Their enthusiasm for this strategy has been boosted since President-elect Joe Biden announced in his campaign that he plans to go back to the nuclear deal with Iran as soon as he gets to the White House.
hat the Iranian mullahs need to realize is that a return to the nuclear deal signed between Iran and the P5+1 group is not that simple. They have to understand that there is a difference between election promises and putting them into practice. For example, President Trump did not keep his pledge to withdraw from the nuclear deal until more than two years after coming to the West Wing. READ MORE
