Continuous duality by Washington

*By Mohammad Ghaderi

The U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, claimed in an interview with Alhurra recently that Iran should decide between its economy or talks with the United States. 

The official has called Trump’s policies against Iran “diplomatic” and that Trump has acted so “generously” in this regard!

Hook also said Washington should not reduce sanctions to have a meeting with Iran. 

It is obvious that after a nearly three-year failure against Iran’s power, U.S. officials have resorted to a dichotomous approach.   

Early in his presidency, Trump and his supporters warned Iran to choose between a complete breakdown of its system or meet U.S. demands. But today following the heavy defeat of the “maximum pressure” strategy against Tehran, the White House’s officials have taken a few steps back and are talking about wrecking Iran’s economy. 

On the other hand, many U.S. officials’ measures for confronting Iran have turned out to be wrong, since Trump sought to overthrow the Islamic Republic system by implementing John Bolton’s anti-Iran plans. But, he was finally forced to dismiss Bolton after lots of strategic and tactical blunders. This situation got to the point that Trump, who had appointed Bolton as his national security adviser, blamed him for the mess. 

Hook’s recent remarks, also repeated by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are just an absurd and useless attempt to create duality and dilemma for Iran.

“The Iranian regime must fundamentally change its behavior and act like a normal nation. Or it can watch its economy collapse,” Pompeo said in a tweet on Friday. In remarks almost a year ago, Pompeo also said Iranian officials must listen to Washington “if they want their people to eat”

Obviously, there is no dilemma as Iran has rebuffed U.S. demands and its economy has not collapsed. In contrast, there is the dichotomy of Trump’s fall and unconditional acknowledgment to Iranian power.
Now, it is Trump’s turn to choose one of these options.

Indeed, the harder the U.S. tries to deal with Iran dichotomously, the costs of United States’ defeat against a “powerful Iran” will be increased. This is a matter that many U.S. foreign policy strategists have confirmed. 

* Author: Mohammad Ghaderi , Tehran Times editor in chief