Biden will return to JCPOA but retain some sanctions on Israel’s order: Analyst

Daniel Kovalik, an academic at the University of Pittsburgh

The newly-inaugurated administration of US President Joe Biden will likely be taking its lead from Israel and keep some anti-Iran sanctions in place despite returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, an American author and political analyst has said.

Daniel Kovalik, an academic at the University of Pittsburgh, made the comment in a phone interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on the issue of the so-called US "maximum pressure" campaign and its failure against the Iranian nation’s resolve and resistance.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani expressed confidence a day earlier that America’s economic war against Tehran has failed, as the world community is unanimously urging Washington to return to its obligations under the multilateral nuclear deal it abandoned in 2018.

With Trump gone, Iran more certain about US economic war’s failure: Rouhani

President Rouhani says Iran is today more certain about the failure of America’s economic war against the nation, as the world is urging the new US administration to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal.

Kovalik censured as “brutal” the anti-Iran pressure campaign and said the country had managed to weather the economic war imposed by Washington.

“It is true that Iran has survived this very brutal economic war, and a number of provocations, including the murder last year of General Soleimani, and so Iran has proven that it will survive, and Biden has at least suggested that he's open to re-entering the deal, and I certainly hope he does,” Kovalik told Press TV .

He was referring to Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated alongside several of his companions by a US drone strike near the international airport in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad last January.

“I think he will keep some sanctions in place because Israel wants him to do so,” the political analyst added. “I just saw that Israel threatened that if he let up on the sanctions, it would attack Iran. So, Israel is always the question mark. It's kind of the tail wagging the dog, and we'll see if Biden gives into that.”

In May 2018, then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The hawkish president also reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted by the accord and targeted the Iranian nation with the “toughest ever” restrictive measures.

The fate of the deal is now hanging in the balance after the European co-signatories — France, Britain and Germany — failed to counter those sanctions as required by the JCPOA, prompting Tehran to suspend parts of its commitments in retaliation.

Trump’ successor, Joe Biden, has pledged to return to the multilateral accord if Iran returns to compliance.

Iran, however, says the US should first prove its resolve to rejoin the deal by lifting the sanctions.