U.S. President Donald Trump has been in office for just over one month and in that time he has launched his vision for his Maximum Pressure Policy against Iran – a policy he crafted during his first presidency in 2017 – which includes financial sanctions, tariffs and strategies to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“The government of the Islamic Republic, the economy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a ripe target for this kind of financial warfare,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at Washington-based think tank the Foundation for Defence of Democracies told Kayhan Life.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran’s theocracy, retracted the regime’s offer to engage in talks with Washington about its nuclear program, in an apparent reaction to the launch of Trump’s Maximum Pressure policy.
“Iran’s position regarding nuclear talks is clear and we will not negotiate under pressure and sanctions,” the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Abbas Araghchi said during a Feb. 25 televised joint press conference with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Lavrov.
Despite the deadlock, Trump has continued to express a desire to flesh out a deal with Tehran, a move which some analysts say could be counter-productive.
“The art of the deal for the Trump administration will be to show Khamenei, will be to show his lieutenants there is no way out but through,” Taleblu said.There is only one option on the table, given how weak the regime is, and that if Trump is keen to dance with the devil, and that is not something I endorse, then I think the only deal, or the only option on the table for the president, is to look at a disarmament or a dismantling kind of agreement as the framework with which to pursue nuclear diplomacy with the Islamic Republic.”
Speaking about FDD’s proposed Iran strategy for dealing with the Iranian regime, Taleblu said: “I endorse a hybrid escalation of maximum pressure on the regime, maximum support for the people to basically force unilateral concessions from the regime, rather than phasing them out over time through some kind of over negotiated process.”
In this interview, Taleblu talks to Kayhan Life about the following developments:
- Trumps’ actions in relation to Iran during his first month in office
- What the 2025 version of the Maximum Pressure policy includes and whether it is materially different to former U.S. President Joe Biden’s Maximum Pressure campaign
- Khamenei’s current approach to the U.S., Israel and the West generally
- The Iranian regime’s power and reach, following its conflict with Israel and the loss of key ally Bashar Al-Assad after the downfall of the regime in Syria
- Trump’s emerging strategy against Iran, and
- A new movement called CPAC for Iranians in Exile, which aims to unite opposition groups within the Iranian diaspora.
