RNA - Trump is leading the pressure campaign against Iran to appease the pro-Israel lobbyists and individuals surrounding his administration, Scott Rickard said in an interview following Trump’s anti-Iran rhetoric.
In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump urged the world to isolate Iran and threatened to impose more hard-hitting sanctions against the Islamic Republic. He accused Tehran of sponsoring terrorism and sowing "chaos, death and destruction," in the Middle East.
The US president renewed his criticism of “the horrible 2015 nuclear deal” between Iran and six world powers. Trump withdrew the US from the historic deal in May and ordered sanctions to be reinstated against Tehran.
Rickard said Trump and top officials in his administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security adviser John Bolton, pursued Israeli policy on Iran.
“The fact that Trump is continually trying to vilify Iran and make Iran the enemy is not a new effort that’s been done by the pro-Israel lobby,” the analyst said.
"[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has been doing it for over two decades, and unfortunately, he has recruited many in the intelligent and the military industrial complex as well as political infrastructure of the United States, and sadly, the United States is absolutely pushing for war,” he added.
According to Press TV, the Trump administration’s effort to destroy the Iranian economy is not a new phenomenon and has been part and parcel of US foreign policy for nearly four decades, since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Rickard pointed out.
“This is one of the longest standing sanctions that the Americans have imposed on a nation and the Iranian people have merely survived heroically against one of the worst economic sanctions in the history of the world,” he said.
Rickard concluded that as long as Israel’s grip on US foreign policy lasts, the sanctions against the Iranian nation would continue.
Speaking from the same rostrum, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said "unilateral and illegitimate" sanctions imposed by the US were tantamount to "economic terrorism."
“The Iranian people have demonstrated their unwavering resilience during the past forty years despite the difficulties and constraints caused by sanctions, and have shown that they can overcome this difficult phase as well," Rouhani said.
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