Trump's Hawkish Foreign Policy is Decimating Iran's Reform Movement
International Policy Digest
WORLD NEWS /01 JUL 2019
Kourosh Ziabari
...President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran deal in May 2018 was a fundamentally miscalculated and counterproductive decision that rendered the outcome of two years of committed and meaningful diplomacy null and void and escalated tensions in an already boiling Middle East.
...the withdrawal of the United States from the Iran deal had grave implications for Iranian society, as well. The reinstatement of sanctions against Iran after Trump’s pullout ...was a big gift for Iran’s hardliners who never cease to advocate that negotiations with the United States are meaningless and unhelpful... they had never concealed their dismay and anger on the grounds that the deal had compromised the country’s nuclear might in return for no significant concessions from the other parties.
...All of these developments mean the reform movement, which advocates personal freedoms, civil liberties and dialogue with the international community will be undermined and the hardliners will have the upper hand in Iran’s political landscape, and this is predominantly the by-product of President Donald Trump’s hawkish foreign policy and his ignorance about the dynamics of Iranian society. ...After 2021, when Iranians go to polls to elect a new president, the country might be fully in the hands of ultra-conservatives and hardliners...
https://intpolicydigest.org/2019/07/01/trump-s-hawkish-foreign-policy-is-decimating-iran-s-reform-movement/
Pretty thoughtful article-worth the whole read.
