Paul R. Pillar
U.S. policy toward Iran clearly has failed. This has been conspicuously true for at least the last six years since former president Donald Trump reneged on the multilateral agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), that restricted Iran’s nuclear program. He did so despite Iran’s compliance with those restrictions, which had effectively closed the paths to a possible Iranian nuclear weapon.
Trump’s administration later expanded sanctions on Iran to all-out economic warfare termed “maximum pressure.” The Biden administration has continued most of its predecessor’s economic pressure on Iran, notwithstanding Republican efforts to make an issue out of limited waivers needed to permit technical discussions in the interest of nuclear nonproliferation and the partial unfreezing of some Iranian assets as part of a prisoner swap. The current administration has even added anti-Iran sanctions of its own.
In short, whatever Iran has been doing lately that one might choose to describe as bad or nefarious, it is doing during continued heavy economic pressure from the United States.
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