US, Israel seek to neuter Iran as a regional power to obtain complete hegemony: Scholar

The US and Israel are seeking to neuter Iran as a regional power so they can obtain complete regional hegemony, says Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

A former US under secretary of state for political affairs, who was the chief negotiator in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, has criticized President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran saying it has gotten the United States in a “really bad place” and  that Iran is “nowhere close to negotiating with the Trump administration.”

Wendy Sherman made the remarks on Wednesday speaking at the virtual Aspen Security Forum where the US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook also delivered remarks on "Maximum Pressure: America's Strategy to Counter Iran.”

Sherman argued that Trump’s decision to leave the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran in May 2018 has gotten the United States "to a really bad place".

“I appreciate that the Trump administration put the maximum pressure campaign and they indeed have, but what it has gotten them, and Brian [Hook] said this himself, is resistance," said Sherman who negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement.

“Iran is now enriching at higher levels with more centrifuges. They are still supporting proxies in the region,” she added, without offering any evidence.

Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran got US in a ‘really bad place’: Chief nuclear negotiator

Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran US in a “really bad place,” former US nuclear negotiator Wendy Sherman says.

“US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Iran envoy Brian Hook advertise this as a campaign of ‘maximum pressure,’ but their ultimate objective—which they insist is not regime change—remains a mystery,” she added.

In an interview with Press TV on Friday, Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, Etler said, “The US, under Trump's misguided leadership, has taken the Zionist policy of ‘maximum pressure’ directed against Iran to the extreme.”

“There is no mystery as to what Washington wants. They want to apply so much economic, diplomatic and military pressure that Tehran ‘cries uncle’ and submits to the US and Israeli Zionist's demands, total capitulation, the dismantling of its peaceful nuclear facilities, the abandonment of its defense and security forces and withdrawal from the Middle East as an active player, leaving the region open to complete US/Israeli/Saudi hegemony. Whether that amounts to ‘regime change’ or not is immaterial,” he added.

“It would neuter Iran and make it irrelevant as a nation-state with its own core interests. Problem is, the Iranian people did not make a revolution in 1979 to ever allow that to happen again and the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue on its path of anti-imperialist resistance no matter what,” he noted.

“The hubris of the current administration in Washington knows no bounds. Rather than seek to build on the solid foundation of the JCPOA, they want to completely scuttle it. They use every means in their arsenal of dirty tricks to cajole other nations to abide by their dictates. In so doing they further isolate themselves and show to the world their vicious nature and intent,” he said.

“Now, the degenerate reprobates in Washington are extending their policy of ‘maximum pressure’ to the People's Republic of China. This is perhaps their greatest folly. The great Chinese nation and people will never kowtow to US imperialism and US pressure is only strengthening their resolve. China which helped to resolve differences between Iran and the West, leading up to the acceptance of the JCPOA, will not abandon the agreement nor its friendly, comradely relations with Iran. US actions have only solidified their ties,” he observed.

“As the saying goes, Trump and his minions have only picked up stones to drop on their own feet. Iran will not yield in the face of US intransigence. Sooner than later the US will come to its senses, abandon its failed policies and recommit to the JCPOA,” he concluded.

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