Scholar: Iran, US wasted many opportunities to reach compromise

A US-based scholar says Washington has been pursuing a policy of pressure and simultaneous efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran since the presidency of Bill Clinton (1993-2001), but both Iran and the United States have lost many opportunities to reach a compromise.

In an interview with ILNA, Shirin Hunter, a former member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said US President Joe Biden’s policies toward Iran are not much different from those of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

“It was Iran’s mistake to think that Biden would fully change America’s Iran policy,” she said in reaction to the latest US move to impose a new round of sanctions on the Islamic Republic amid diplomatic efforts to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement.

The former researcher and professor at Georgetown University did not rule out the possibility that Iran’s nuclear dossier may be referred back to the UN Security Council, although the US is currently busy with other global crises such as the Russian war on Ukraine and tensions with China over Taiwan.

She said the nuclear deal has always been more important to Iran that it has been to the US as Tehran is need of improving its economy by securing a removal of the sanctions.

The Europeans, however, are very much interested in the restoration of the Iran deal due to the energy crisis they are grappling with amid tensions with Russia over Ukraine, Hunter said.

“The European states want more Iranian oil to reach the global market,” she added.

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