Iran’s Strategic Patience Blocked Trump’s Adventurism

An expert in West Asian affairs said Iran’s “strategic patience and self-constraint” and its art of crisis management humiliated both Riyadh and Tel Aviv in their objective of inciting the adventurist US President Donald Trump to launch a military attack against Iran.
Speaking with IRNA in a recent interview, Ardeshir Sanaei added that the outgoing US President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy against Iran is on its last legs, and although many analysts considered a US military attack against Iran as likely, in view of the recent developments in the region and especially inside America, it is now a remote possibility during the last days of Trump’s tenure.
“Iran managed to exercise a strategic patience and self-constraint policy during the power transfer period in America when the Saudi Arabian and Israeli leaders were perseveringly intriguing the outgoing US president to launch at least a limited US military attack against Iran,” he said.
Sanaei, who is also a university professor, said the Islamic Republic’s top decision-makers also managed to control the actions of their allied forces inside and outside Iran so that they will not provide excuses for America and its allies during this sensitive transition period.
The international affairs analyst referred to the business mentality of Trump as another factor that led to the defeat of the anti-Iran plan of Tel Aviv and Riyadh.
“Trump also somehow calculated the costs and benefits of such an adventurist move and realized that the loss of US forces, and generally speaking, of America is highly likely,” he said.
“The internal political challenges between the Democrats and the Republicans, too, consumed a large part of Trump’s energy and that of his team and all in all, such developments led to scrapping the adventurist Iran-attack option. Especially on the historical day when the US Capitol was occupied, which preoccupied the entire remaining days of Trump’s term, Iran attack plans were gone with the wind.”

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Focusing on incoming US President-elect Joe Biden’s policies on West Asia, Sanaei said he does not think they will differ significantly from Trump’s policies but for some modifications.
The analyst said the Democrats’ policies on Arab-Israeli conflict will remain unchanged compared with those of the Republicans, and the only difference will be efforts to maintain the balance between the two sides, while during Trump’s tenure, the balance was always tilted in favor of Israel.
Regarding the US policies on Persian Gulf Arab countries, Sanaei said the US policies will remain unchanged, although the Democrats will include their human rights concerns in their policies.
“Biden’s entry to the White House will also create an evolution in Iran-US relations, as well as those of all countries involved in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [the 2015 Iran nuclear deal], because the Democrats believe that by remaining in JCPOA, they can block the path of Islamic Republic of Iran from becoming a nuclear power,” he said.
The analyst believes that if Biden intends to live up to the presidential campaign promises, he needs to terminate the sanctions and heavily reduce the existing pressure against Iran’s economy, which will help improve the living conditions of Iranians.
“Biden will return the US to JCPOA and apparently also terminate the sanctions, but in full harmony with the Europeans, and he will also try to focus on the need to respect human rights and to convince Iran to go to the negotiating table and give at least some concessions on its ballistic missiles and its regional policies,” Sanaei concluded.