TEHRAN — U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden has strongly criticized the Trump administration’s Iran policy, saying this past month has proven that Donald Trump’s Iran policy is a “dangerous failure”.

“At the United Nations, Trump could not rally a single one of America’s closest allies to extend the UN arms embargo on Iran,” Biden wrote in an opinion piece published by the CNN on Sunday.

“Next, Trump tried to unilaterally reimpose UN sanctions on Iran, only to have virtually all the UN security council members unite to reject his gambit,” he wrote, adding, “We urgently need to change course.”

According to Biden, the U.S. president has repeatedly ratcheted up tensions, risking another war in West Asia without a realistic strategy or endgame. 

He also said Trump’s “maximum pressure”, which he imposed on Tehran after he withdrew from the Obama-reached nuclear deal, has been a boon to the Islamic Republic and a bust for America’s interests.

Saying that Trump has repeatedly brought Americans to the brink of a new war, the Democratic presidential candidate said, “If this is what Trump considers success, I would hate to see what failure looks like.”

Trump 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” campaign against Iran.

On May 8, 2019, exactly one year after the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, Tehran said its “strategic patience” is over and began to gradually reduce its commitments under the pact to both retaliate for Washington’s departure and Europeans’ failure to honor their commitments.

On January 5 of this year, Iran took a fifth and last step in reducing its commitments and said it would no longer observe any operational limitations on its nuclear industry, whether concerning the capacity and level of uranium enrichment, the volume of stockpiled uranium or research and development. However, Iran has insisted if the Europeans honor their obligations it will immediately reverse its decisions.

“If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations,” said Biden, who was vice president during the Obama administration.

He also said if elected president he will also take steps to make sure U.S. sanctions do not hinder Iran’s fight against Covid-19.

At the same time, Biden argued that there’s a better way to confront Iran. “There is a smart way to be tough on Iran, and there is Trump’s way,” he said.

He also claimed that Iran is much closer to building a nuclear one than when Trump took power.

“Now – because Trump let Iran off the hook from its obligations under the nuclear deal – Tehran’s ‘breakout time’ is down to just a few months,” he said.

The commotion over Iran’s nuclear program was made by the U.S. and its allies while Iran has repeatedly ruled out any intention to develop nuclear weapons.

Based on a fatwa (religious decree) of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it is illegitimate to produce or use nuclear weapons and it has no place in Iran’s security doctrine. Iran has on numerous occasions repeated such position.

Last month, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif pointed to the fatwa, saying, “We’ve never been after nuclear weapons and will never do so.”

He said Iran regards the development of nuclear weapons as a morally wrong act and a wrong strategic move.

MH/PA