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US ‘maximum pressure’ against Iran failed: Washington Post

The Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran has failed to achieve any of the US objectives, according to The Washington Post. 

The Washington Post editorial published on Tuesday states that Washington unleashed its so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran in 2018, when it left the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Following US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Washington targeted Tehran with its “toughest ever” economic sanctions.

However, the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign not only failed in its objectives, including renegotiation of the Iran nuclear deal, prevention of Tehran’s growing influence in the Middle East, as well as “regime change”; but also, unintentionally strengthened China’s bilateral relation with Tehran.

The article stresses that the Trump’s administration’s policy resulted “in a powerful new blow to US interests, in the form of an Iranian partnership with China that could rescue Iran’s economy while giving Beijing a powerful new place in the region.”

According to the Post article, “Trump’s confrontational approach to China in recent months, including his refusal to continue work on a comprehensive trade deal, has given Mr. Xi [Jinping] little incentive to cooperate with Washington’s geopolitical priorities. On the contrary, the Chinese leadership likely perceives a moment of critical US weakness as Mr. Trump flounders amid a health and economic crisis and is moving to take advantage. It is expanding its presence in the South China Sea; it is crushing Hong Kong’s autonomy. Allying itself with the foremost US adversary in the Middle East opens yet another front.”

The Post article concluded that the hostile US policy towards China, exacerbated by the hostilities of Washington’s trade war on the Chinese nation, was pushing Beijing to shield US adversaries from Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign.

In addition, China would gain more by “demonstrating US impotence” as Iran becomes immune to the US “pressure campaign”.

“Trump is mistaken if he believes ‘maximum pressure’ is getting him closer to a deal with Iran. The policy is not leading to Iran’s capitulation or collapse, but entrenching US-Iran hostilities and keeping the United States perennially at the cusp of war in the Middle East,” according to another article published in the Foreign Policy.

The leading US foreign policy magazine advised “Trump to ditch maximum pressure and rebuild the trust necessary for successful negotiations,”

“International relations and the real estate market are not similar,” it pointed out to the former realtor.

“Bullying and bluster do not win deals; mutual respect and ‘win-win. compromise do,” it concluded.

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