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US war against Iran would be ‘disastrous’ for Trump administration: Analyst

US President Donald Trump is under “tremendous pressure” from war hawks in Washington to take military action against Iran, which would be politically “disastrous” for his administration, says an American military and political analyst.

There’s “a lot of pushing against Donald Trump to do something of a military nature toward Iran,” said James Jatras, a former US Senate foreign policy analyst.

“I don’t think he would move forward with any aggressive action because it would be disastrous for him and his administration, but he’s under tremendous pressure here in Washington,” Jatras told Press TV on Tuesday.

In May, Trump unilaterally scrapped a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reinstated its sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Besides withdrawing from the deal, Washington had also threatened the Islamic Republic with the “strongest sanctions in history” as well as military action.

Iranian officials said Tehran would not negotiate under pressure and threat.

After receiving Iran's negative response, Trump said Monday that there has been no US outreach towards Iran over negotiations between the two sides, only weeks after he said he was ready to sit down with Iranian authorities.

“If they want to meet that’s fine, and if they don’t want to meet, I couldn’t care less,” he told Reuters in an interview.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton said Tuesday that the Europeans have to make a choice between the US and Iran in observing American sanctions which he claims have been more effective than expected.

Trump “wants maximum pressure on Iran, maximum pressure, and that is what is going on,” Bolton said during a visit to Israel.

The European Union has been scrambling to save the nuclear agreement with measures to shield EU firms from punitive US penalties and trying to persuade Iran to stay in the deal. This has proven difficult, with many European firms worried about suffering from financial penalties by the Trump administration.

US administration officials have said newly re-imposed sanctions are meant to change Iran’s policies, including its role in the region, making a point that they are not aimed at toppling the Islamic Republic.

EU diplomats said Trump's so-called America First stance on trade and Iran was fuelling a rethink about EU dependency on the US financial system and the dollar.

"He is forcing us to explore alternatives …or we can’t carry out our own policies," a diplomat said.


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