U.S. Special Envoy for Iran: U.S. strategic goals concerning Iran will not change with the president

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the U.S. government begins the transition from the Trump Administration to a Biden Administration, several questions have emerged about how the latter will change, or not, U.S. foreign policy strategies, particularly concerning Iran.

In an interview on Wednesday, U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Elliott Abrams stated that U.S. interests will not change with the president, stressing that sanctions against Tehran have been effective and continued pressure will push the Iranian regime to modify its behavior.

“We have a maximum pressure sanctions program. This will continue in November and December, because it’s unrelated to politics, it has nothing to do with the elections. It’s the foreign policy of the U.S., and it’s based on Iran’s conduct,” he told Israeli reporters during a briefing in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Abrams added that whether President Donald Trump remains in office or Joe Biden takes office, the currently imposed sanctions will be important to future policy decisions.

According to Abrams, the Biden Administration will make use of the existing sanctions in negotiations with the Islamic Republic in order to get new concessions and that removing them would not be easy.

“Legally, it is correct that a president has the right to reverse any executive act that he took or that a previous president took. Whether it is advisable and politically possible is a different question,” he said.

At the opening of the eighth session of the Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia, King Salman bin Abdulaziz said that Saudi Arabia is co0ncerned about Iran’s regional aspirations and rejected outright any interference by Iran in the domestic affairs of countries across the Middle East. Iran supports terrorism and extremism and has inflamed sectarianism throughout the region, said the King.

King Salman called on the international community to take a firm stance against Iran to ensure that it is prevented from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and advancing its ballistic missile program.