TEHRAN - Marc Otte, the former European Union’s special representative to the Middle East peace process, has said that future of the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the JCPOA, depends on the international determination to keep it.

All sides’ good intention and trust-building actions are only ways to settle the crisis created by the Trump administration, he told ILNA in an interview published on Sunday.

He also said that the United States seeks to weaken Iran’s international position.

Otte said that the U.S. is making efforts to reach its objective through policy of maximum pressure on Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally quit the nuclear deal in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions in history on Iran as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran.

Many analysts and think tanks believe that the maximum pressure policy has failed.

U.S. Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said in May that the Trump administration’s policy of maximum pressure against Iran is a “failed policy”.

President Hassan Rouhani said in December 2019 that the White House has no way other than putting an end to its policy of “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in September 2019 that Washington’s policy of sanction and pressure against Iran has not worked.

“The United States is running out of options. It is desperate. The policy of maximum pressure has not worked,” he told CGTN in an interview.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran bankrupt.

“We have been pressuring them. Maximum pressure… we’re seeing the unfolding of really a bankruptcy of approach,” Kerry told CBS News.

NA/PA