US President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran’s economy is doomed to fail, a former member of his Iran negotiating team argued.
Washington’s effort to sanction countries doing business with Tehran “poses a greater threat to US credibility” than to the regime’s economy, Nate Swanson wrote in Foreign Affairs.
Already in the throes of an economic crisis, Iran’s leaders have little to lose by retaliating against economic pressure “with the kind of military escalation [Trump] now seems keen to avoid,” The New York Times noted. The more effective the US sanctions, a Reuters columnist argued, “the more they incentivize Iran to hit back with every military means at its disposal.”