Mideast experts believe that President Donald Trump’s renewed maximum pressure campaign on Iran has significantly shaken the regime in Tehran while also signifying a definitive departure from the Biden administration’s more conciliatory approach towards the country.
Trump also warned the regime on Tuesday that if it carries out his assassination, advisers will ensure that the country is “obliterated.”
In response to Trump’s stance, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that preventing Iran from seeking nuclear weapons is an attainable objective. He dismissed the efficacy of the maximum pressure strategy, labeling it a failed experiment that would lead to further disappointment if repeated. Araghchi refrained from specifically addressing Trump’s sanctions targeting Iranian oil exports and support for terrorist organizations.
The National Aerospace Park of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in western Tehran, October 11, 2023. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The JCPOA, an acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was former President Obama’s signature foreign policy deal. It was supposed to slow down Iran’s drive to build an atomic bomb in exchange for massive economic benefits for Iran. In 2018, President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and famously termed it “the worst deal in history.” Trump said at the time of the withdrawal, “At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program.”
According to the Trump administration, the JCPOA did not prevent Iran from securing a nuclear weapons device and allowed Tehran to finance global terrorism.
Diker said, “Trump will face an Iranian regime octopus that is still extending its terror tentacles across the region, particularly in the Israeli controlled Judea and Samaria (West Bank) while prosecuting charm offensive with European and other powers to fend off the US initiative to strangle the Iranian regime.”
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this story.