Radio Sputnik discussed President Trump's decision with Ramin Mazaheri, PressTV's Chief Correspondent in Paris.
Sputnik: Despite the numerous pleas not to withdraw from the deal, President Trump did it anyway. Why has he taken this step? Was it to be expected?
Ramin Mazaheri: It’s something that definitely should have been expected. I certainly did. History shows that America has a very strict policy of not keeping its policies. We can look at North Korea; they made major steps towards dismantling their nuclear project. Many people will remember the famous video of them blowing up their cooling tower to officially shutter their nuclear plant. And the US did not ease up their sanctions, they did not allow food aid, they didn’t allow energy deliveries. And that’s why North Korea is pursuing their nuclear program today. So given that Iran is one of the chief ideological enemies of Washington, even if Hillary had won the whole world would have been surprised if the US kept this deal.
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It would cost him dearly. So when we consider all of this animosity from the US, we really shouldn’t be surprised that Trump pulled out. Why should the US stay after all? They are ideologically opposed to Tehran. Washington is capitalist but they have no money at stake in Iran because they do no business, so that’s not a factor. Washington’s other driving ideology is imperialism and we see how Iran opposes with money and guns, American imperialist projects in Iran itself quite successfully and also in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, the whole region. Who else takes on the US so brazenly in 2018, but Iran? So there’s nothing pushing Washington in a pro-Iran direction. Washington does not have the benevolent, peaceful, politically modern ideology which could move it away from this belligerence. So Trump really fits right in with long-time US policy towards Iran.
Sputnik: What response can we expect from Tehran after Mr. Trump decided to pull the country from the deal? Iranian lawmakers are introducing a motion that calls for “proportional and reciprocal action by the government.” How do you think the situation will develop?
Ramin Mazaheri: Rouhani put it rather perfectly. He said for 40 years this is what the US does, they don’t comply, they are aggressive towards Iran, they’ve done nothing which would benefit the Iranian people which they claim to support, which nobody really believes in Iran. Americans don’t like to hear that and Rouhani is not a hardliner and he is the one saying that we can’t trust the US and that’s exactly what the so-called hardliners say that the US can’t be trusted.
And the so-called hardliners are the only guilty of studying history. And they’re going to get more influence because of this. My point here is that very few people in Iran and seemingly no one at any level of government in Iran is deluded into thinking that smiling Obama or unpredictable Trump doesn’t represent the exact same system which is anti-Iran, pro-imperialist, anti-socialist, totally opposed to Islamic democracy and have been for 40 years. This is a continuation of policy, Trump isn’t new.
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Europe is not going to break with Washington over Cuban nickel and Cuban sugar. And they’re not going to break with Washington over North Korea, there’s no trade there. They might break with Washington over Iranian oil and this is something that we just have to wait and see and just to wrap it up Europe has shockingly put in legal structures in place to protect their trade and now we’ll see if they follow through with it.
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