Article by Nimetullah YILDIRIM
The American elections were held, and Iran was the foremost country that eagerly was awaiting the results. If Joe Biden sworns in as new president of the US, can it be good news for the Iranian regime, which has been isolated from rest of the world with its economy and all its institutions, due to embargoes and is one of the countries that most affected by the Corona epidemic?
When taking into consideration the traditional approach of the Tehran regime, if asked which of the two presidential candidates she would prefer, of course, she would say “Biden, the better of the two worst”. About two months before the elections, Joe Biden said in an interview that “If Iran complies with the terms of the nuclear deal, his country will join the deal, as a start of new negotiations.”
This week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zareef said that if his country expected to comply with terms of nuclear deal, then all embargoes against his country must be lifted to begin with.
In addition to the previously imposed nuclear bans, the Trump administration included Iran’s oil and gas industry, the Central Bank and all other banking systems along with many other commodities and persons in the embargo on the grounds of “supporter of terrorism”. Furthermore, as an unprecedented step, he included the Revolutionary Guards Army, which is affiliated to the Iranian state and manages a significant part of the country’s economy, on the list of “terrorist organizations”.
It seems possible ‘in theory’ for Biden to abolish these embargoes, but the issue of “the country supporting terrorism”, is a state policy of the USA that has spanned decades. This generates huge a problem and the new US administration do not seem to be able to overcome this handicap easily. There is a prevailing expectation that the Biden administration will pursue a policy based on cooperation by prioritizing the UN, international institutions and organizations; but he has to tackle lots of problems such as a pandemic, economic problems and unemployment, and the Senate, which is dominated by Republicans who have the possibility of locking every step of the Biden government.
Biden’s abolition of the embargoes with a presidential decree will not satisfy Iran and it will demand this to be manifested as a Congress resolution. This is not possible if the Republican majority continues in the Senate. Theories that Biden would not even consider, such as Trump’s insistence to stay at White House for second term, riot in American streets a country divided into two poles with sharp lines, and the possibility of these actions turning into conflicts, will completely extinguish the hopes of the Tehran regime.
In fact, this may be the course that Tehran secretly desires. Regime will re-use the opportunity of an external enemy “The Great Satan America” that it can blame, which forms the basis of the regime’s argument in domestic politics, will try to extend the life of the regime as much as possible by improving collaborations with China, new stronghold of Globalists. Tehran regime already have made many contracts with China, of which the controversial 25-year “Comprehensive-year Strategic Partnership”, whose content has not yet been disclosed to the public.
