Trump has put US on ‘collision course’ with Iran: Analyst

US President Donald Trump’s policy against Iran has put Washington on a “collision course” with Tehran at the behest of Israel, a political analyst and former US Senate candidate says.

News ID: 449278

Date: 25 February 2020 - 10:07

RNA - “It’s obvious from the beginning, Trump was pursuing the Israeli course of war with Iran; regime change with Iran; the breaking of treaties with Iran,” said Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster in San Antonio, Texas.

The Zionist lobby in the US, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, want the Unites States to wage a war against Iran as a “surrogate force” for Israel, Dankof told Press TV on Monday.

US Senator Chris Murphy said Sunday that Trump’s policy on Iran “has been a total disaster," following his withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018.

The Democratic senator from Connecticut made the remarks in an interview with CNN after Trump criticized Murphy for reportedly meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zariff at the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week.

Trump accused Murphy of violating the Logan Act, which forbids unauthorized American citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.

Murphy defended his purported meeting saying that it’s a part of his job as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on the Middle East and Counterterrorism.

“And the fact of the matter is it’s dangerous that this administration is not talking to the Iranians,” he said. “The Trump policy on Iran has been a total disaster. Iran is more powerful today than they were at the beginning of the Trump presidency.”

“I’m not negotiating with Iran, but it does make sense for somebody to be listening to them and to be engaged in some level of outreach as perhaps a means of trying to advert crisis and disaster down the road,” Murphy said.

The Trump administration stoked tensions with Tehran after its unilateral exit from the 2015 nuclear deal and reinstatement of sanctions as part of its policy of “maximum” pressure against the Islamic Republic. Last month. Trump ordered the assassination of top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who led the IRGC’s Quds Force, during a diplomatic trip to Iraq.

A week later, Iran launched missile strikes against the US military in Iraq, injuring scores of American troops.

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