Negotiations without positive ending create a difficult situation; Professor
A US Professor believes Donald Trump is hostile to Iran but to be fair this attitude existed in the US before his election.
Speaking to ILNA news agency, Richard J. Stoll who is the Professor of Political Science at Rice University pointed to US “Maximum Pressure” policy against Iran and said “I do not believe Iran will back down on those issues that are important to it. It might be possible to negotiate an agreement but I think it's unlikely.”
“We are on a pathway that could lead to the signatories of JCPOA (other than the United States) starting to behave in a hostile manner towards Iran.”
Asked about the reasons that cause tension in Persian Gulf, he added that there are several issues but I am not sure these are all the possibilities. The presence of terrorist groups such as ISIS (Daesh terrorist groups) can be the first reason.
“The involvement of Saudi Arabia (and other countries) in Yemen and relationship between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the war in Syria and different issues between the US and Iran, all of them rise the tension in Persian Gulf,” Richard Stoll said.
He is not convincing European can change Trump’strategy toward Iran and adding “May be US president and Iranian counterpart meet each other but I believe that both sides would have to agree ahead of time on at least a few positive steps that could be part of the meeting.”
“Negotiations without some positive ending create a difficult situation. But it could take several rounds of negotiation to achieve a positive result,” the Professor said.
Answering to questions about is there any possibility that Iran and the leader of Saudi Arabia sit around the negotiations table, he said “Possibly but -- like the United States -- Saudi Arabia has a number of issues in which it has strong disagreement with Iran. The presence of multiple serious issues makes a negotiated settlement difficult (but not impossible).”
Asked about the destiny of recent protest in Lebanon and Iraq, the Professor of Political Science said that at the leadership level I see the countries as working together. But at least some of the people in both countries are dissatisfied ... in both cases it seems to be protests about corrupt and a lack of economic reform but I am not sure how many citizens in both countries feel this way.
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