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European Rebuff Dooms Fresh US Sanctions

Asghar Salimi
Asghar Salimi

A lawmaker said the toughened anti-Iran policy of the hawkish new US administration has already failed because its European allies have rebuffed its demands to help enforce fresh US sanctions on Iran.

“The sanction measures against Iran are already doomed, as the European countries refuse to go along with the US to help implement its new sanctions,” Asghar Salimi added in an interview with ICANA on Sunday.

Soon after taking power last month, the administration of US President Donald Trump announced it was putting Iran “on notice” over a ballistic missile test and imposed new sanctions on entities and people allegedly connected to Tehran’s missile program and those providing support to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ Quds Force.

As he campaigned for the White House, Trump railed against the landmark nuclear pact that his predecessor Barack Obama and five other world powers reached with Iran in 2015.

The US partners, namely France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany, have opposed Trump’s idea of renegotiating the accord.

“The new US approach shows that its officials are inexperienced in decision-making and such measures [against Iran] are taken under the influence of the impositions and lobbying efforts of  Zionists,” Salimi said.

Trump’s deputy Mike Pence pledged to Jewish Republicans on Friday that the US administration would “never allow” Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, despite Tehran’s insistence that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes and has no military dimensions.

“We told the [officials] of Iran they should check the calendar; there’s a new president in the Oval Office,” Pence said in an address to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference during Shabbat dinner.

“President Trump will never allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon; this is my solemn promise to you.”

Pence also warned Iran that its “[allies] in places like Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip” would no longer enjoy what he characterized as leniency under the former US administration, suggesting that new non-nuclear sanctions against the Islamic Republic may be in the pipeline.

Jewish Republicans, as well as Israeli officials, reviled the nuclear deal, which swapped sanctions relief for a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program.

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