Analyst: US Provoking Iran to Quit Nuclear Deal

Despite growing tensions, Washington is unlikely to simply abandon the Iran nuclear deal, but will rather use sanctions and accusations to provoke Tehran into withdrawing from it, said an Iranian foreign policy expert and former nuclear negotiator. In his latest meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump had harsh words for the hard-fought deal, calling it “one of the worst deals I’ve ever seen”. This rhetoric is not new for Trump, who said dismantling the deal was at the top of his agenda while still on election campaign trail. Yet Hossein Mousavian said, “I still believe the US is not going to withdraw from the deal. They would try every other avenue to make Iran angry. Because if Iran cannot benefit the economic benefits of the nuclear deal, why should it continue to remain committed to the nuclear agreement? Here is the game, I think, the US would try to play,” Mousavian told RT in a recent interview, while noting that Iranians are “clever enough” not to fall for US provocations. “Iranians, they are clever enough, I believe, as long as the deal is not legally violated, I don’t believe they would violate the deal,” he said.