Trump, Associates Don’t Know Even ABCs of Politics: Iran

A senior Iranian official says Washington’s efforts to bring back international sanctions on Tehran were aimed at improving US President Donald Trump’s approval ratings ahead of US elections, but they would not take such a risk had they known the ABCs of politics.

US President Donald Trump (centre) along with his State Secretary Mike Pompeo (left) and Vice President Mike Pence (right) attend Pompeo's swearing-in ceremony at the State Department

Mahmoud Vaezi, the chief of staff of the Iranian president, said the US was trying to boost Trump’s election campaign by targeting Iran.

“The covert objective that they had and did not reveal was [that they wanted to use their anti-Iran move to reinforce their campaign for] the US election, given that Mr. Trump doesn’t have a good standing in the presidential race,” he said.

“He is seeking tools to change the atmosphere of the election [in his own favour]. It seems the United States’ move was not useful for him and was not effective even with regards to domestic presidential elections,” he added.

“So I think the international community and the UN Security Council rejected the US demand and once again expressed their support for the JCPOA and Resolution 2231,” he added.

The official underlined that the US should not have tried to mobilize countries against Iran as it was a foregone conclusion.

“Whatever the US did and whatever efforts it made over the past 32 or 33 days didn’t have any political or legal grounds. In my idea, if someone knows the ABCs of politics and economy, they won’t take such a gamble,” he added.

“From the very beginning, it was clear that the Americans would lose. Not only Iranian, but even US diplomats and legal experts have said time and again that they don’t know on what basis the Trump administration is referring to a deal that it has proudly withdrawn from,” Vaezi said.

He said UN Security Council members rejected Washington’s demand and they reiterated that the US request has no political and legal basis.

“I want to thank the international community, permanent members of the UN Security Council, the EU and European countries, especially our two friends China and Russia for adopting very straightforward and clear positions over the past month,” he added.

“It seems that everything is clear today. The trigger (snapback mechanism) that Mr. Trump and Mr. Pompeo were seeking and publicizing had no supporters and did not go into force,” said Vaezi.

“This should be an object lesson for the US government not to link [election] campaign issues with political issues,” he said.

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