Iran will not back down to the US, but it can back down from its warnings that it will leave the nuclear agreement reached in 2015 if other countries resume buying its oil, an expert on US-Iranian relations said Saturday.
Trita Parsi, co-founder of the National Iranian American Council based in Washington D.C., told Anadolu Agency that Iran will not bow to the U.S. pressure unless the sanctions are lifted.
Parsi said U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to suffocate Iran's economy will not lead to capitulations from the Iranians.
The 2015 nuclear agreement called The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is a detailed, 159-page agreement with five annexes reached by Iran and the P5 1 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany) on July 14, 2015. The nuclear deal was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted on July 20, 2015.
Parsi said any war with Iran will be an all-out war and added that the forces around Trump "can't sell a big war to him".
"So instead, they are packaging it as a small war, whereas in reality know very well it will lead to a big war."
Speaking about the emerging regional axis against Iran, comprised of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, Parsi said those countries "do not dare to fight this war without full US involvement".
"As the U.S. has hesitated, we have seen how the UAE has started to distance itself from the push for war," Parsi said.
Parsi said Trump is pursuing a path that forces Iran to minimize the chance of diplomacy and maximize the risk of war.
"As long as he pursues maximum pressure and has Bolton by his side, I don't think the Iranians have any reason to agree to Trump's bizarre style of diplomacy," Parsi said.
When asked about what steps EU can take and if it can continue doing business with Iran in line with INSTEX mechanism, Parsi said INSTEX alone will not be sufficient.
The Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) is a special-purpose vehicle established in January 2019 by France, Germany and the United Kingdom to facilitate non-dollar trade with Iran in a bid to continue doing business with Iran.
"Iran needs to sell its oil and INSTEX still appears only focused on non-sanctioned goods. The EU has really failed here," he said.
Parsi criticized EU for failing to live up to the rules and regulations of JCPOA and "blindly" following Trump's sanctions.
* Writing and contribution by Vakkas Dogantekin in Ankara
