U.S. responsible for pause in Vienna talks: Professor
A professor at Aligarh Muslim University has said that both Zionists and Republicans have been vociferously opposing the Vienna Talks, seeing it as a sign of America's capitulation to Iran.
The professor at Aligarh Muslim University, Jawaid Iqbal, said in an exclusive interview with ILNA that the interruptions in the negotiations are caused by the political pressures that US President Joe Biden faces on the domestic front, adding that Hyper-militarist sectors in the American political class have been portraying him as a "weak" president after the Afghanistan withdrawal.
“Further, both Zionists and Republicans have been vociferously opposing the Vienna Talks, seeing it as a sign of America's capitulation to Iran,” he noted.
He added that the US is mainly responsible for this delay. “Lacking the requisite political capital, Biden has been consistently refusing to accept perfectly reasonable Iranian demands. Iranian leaders want the US to delist the Revolutionary Guards from the terror list and are demanding that America provide a legal guarantee that will prevent future US governments from quitting the nuclear deal, reemploying sanctions and curtailing Iran's right to trade freely with other countries.”
“The resumption of negotiations is possible because America needs Iran's oil and gas to help reduce other countries' dependence on Russian hydrocarbons and Iran needs an end to economically destructive sanctions,” he said.
Pointing to that the Russia-Ukraine war has heralded the arrival of multipolarity, he said, “American sanctions against Russia have backfired and have led to the formation of regional trading blocs based on non-dollar currencies. This financial weakening of the dollar - along with the Euro-Atlantic inability to force Third World nations to oppose Russia - has the potential to convince America to stop behaving unilaterally and recognize the legitimate demands of Iran.”
“Unlike Imran Khan, whose administration did not place any special emphasis on consolidating ties with the Arab petro-monarchies, the newly formed government is expected to craft a foreign policy that is tilted towards the Gulf states and, in particular, Saudi Arabia. Further, Shehbaz Sharif has close links with functionaries in Riyadh - a factor which can have a significant influence on Pakistan’s policy towards Iran,” he concluded.