After US escalation: Will Iran retreat from its suspicious role in the region?

Islam Muhammad

At a time when the United States stepped up its tone toward Tehran, the latter’s position appeared to be more stringent, especially after Washington stepped up restrictions on it.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on Wednesday, September 25, 2019, said that his country will tighten sanctions on Iran if it does not retreat from its behavior, noting that the attack on Saudi oil is an attack on the global economy.

“Tehran is the aggressor and not a victim in any way,” he said at a symposium titled “Union Against Iran’s Nuclear,” adding that it was only responding to force, accusing it of “creating chaos by supporting the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq.”

He pointed out that with the “start of US President Donald Trump’s strategy, against Tehran, we stopped the profits of Iran and doubled the pressure on the regime,” calling on Iranian officials to put the interests of the people first, pointing to the imposition of “severe sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”

He said that “a large number of countries have shown their willingness to face the threat of Iran to navigation and international security.”

He explained that “US diplomacy drew the attention of the international community to the threat of Iran to international peace,” describing the president of Iran as “miserable”, and “Tehran is only responding to force,” and vowed to impose sanctions on Chinese entities transporting Iranian oil.

The US Treasury Department on Wednesday (September 25th) imposed new sanctions on a Chinese shipping company and another oil company doing business with Iran.

The new sanctions included COSCO Shipping and China Petroleum, the ministry said on its website.

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a few days ago, also imposed sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran, the National Development Fund of Iran and the company “Accreditation Trade Pars.”

In return, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he was ready to discuss limited changes, additions or amendments to the nuclear deal if the United States lifted sanctions on Tehran.

He said his US counterpart, Donald Trump, must “re-establish trust” between their countries before any meeting between them. It needs to be something planned and prepared. ”

“The restoration of confidence is through ending pressure on the Iranian nation and people,” he said, stressing that the lifting of sanctions would “change things.” The door to a deal with the international community is more comprehensive than the nuclear deal from which Trump withdrew.

Earlier, leaders of France, Germany and Britain blamed Iran for the attacks on Aramco labs, demanding the Iranian regime to “refrain from any further provocation.”

For his part, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, said on Tuesday, 24 September 2019, that the Kingdom will consider all options to respond to Iran after the conclusion of the investigation into the Aramco attack, indicating in a dialogue session on the sidelines of the United Nations meetings in New York, that according to preliminary investigations the source of firing rockets at Aramco factories is Iran.

In his opening address to the 74th session of the United Nations in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack on the Aramco oil facilities.

Guterres’ comments came hours after the Saudi cabinet announced that the attack on the two Aramco oil facilities had been carried out with Iranian weapons.

The US special envoy on Iran, Brian Hawk, also stressed the US intention to continue the policy of sanctions against Tehran, and stressed that the strengthening of the US military presence in the Gulf has contributed to deter the Iranian regime, noting that the countries that accused Iran of being behind the attacks on Saudi oil facilities “was based on intelligence”.

The Iranian government spokesman Ali Rubaie said that President Hassan Rouhani will make important proposals in New York to build confidence and break the current stalemate, coinciding with the resumption of meetings of the work of the 47th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Rubaie said in a press statement after the government meeting that Iran can accept limited amendments to the nuclear deal and provide assurances that Tehran does not seek to acquire nuclear weapons, in return for the return of the United States to the nuclear deal and lift the sanctions imposed on it.