AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The resignation of Brian Hook ,Donald Trump’s lead diplomat on Iran and the head of Iran Action Group of the Department of State, was an important development that bears signs to the failure of the White House “maximum pressure” on Iran that has been pursued since the US withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018 with the aim to bring Iran to its knees using what Washington diplomats call sophisticated and crippling sanctions.
Trump’s broken pieces in the face of Iran
Brian Hook is one of the rare diplomats under Trump who until August 6 survived the changes in the US foreign policy apparatus. After firing Rex Tillerson as a Secretary of State, Brian Hook is the second to be removed from the foreign affairs office.
Hook has been tough on Iran in stances and repeatedly called for renewing the arms embargo on Iran by the United Nations Security Council. He was one of Trump’s main pieces in the anti-Iranian maximum pressure campaign, tasked with making coordination with other American state institutions to guarantee accurate imposition of sanctions on Tehran.
Watching and detecting the Iranian breathing channels that help the Islamic Republic circumvent illegitimate sanctions, making sure that the sanctions are implemented by other countries, and also leading a political and media propaganda war against Tehran were other duties of Hook while holding the post.
But now and after two years of holding a post crafted to make Iran quit its current policy, the head of the Iran Action Group, disappointed and without any achievements to his boss Trump and other hardline Republicans who arranged the maximum pressure campaign against Iran, is quitting the position with a shattered dream to bring Iran to its knees like others in Trump administration. Former UN envoy Nikki Haley and former National Security Advisor John Bolton were the leading hardliners in the Trump administration who drove the anti-Iranian policy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is the only remaining anti-Iranian diplomat. Reports say that Trump seeks to get rid of him too by persuading him to run for Senate in Kansas.
In fact, all of those figures who misled Trump in the way of dealing with Iran in hope of getting results from the anti-Iranian pressure campaign are now to blame for Trump’s dismal condition in rivalry against the Democratic candidate. Trump’s situation is now so disappointing that even a hawkish figure like Bolton is against his reelection.
End of Hook; the defeat of maximum pressure and confusion of White House
Definitely, the resignation of Hook primarily bears witness to the defeat of the maximum pressure campaign because the most important architect of the policy has accepted the defeat and quitted the position. So far, the White House even failed to persuade the UNSC members that Iran arms embargo should be extended as it is expected to end in early October. At the same time, the US lost the jurisdiction it once held influence the Iran nuclear agreement that was signed between the Islamic Republic and the world’s six powers— the US, China, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain— in 2015. In the middle of the utmost pressures, Iran has shifted to the East for strategic partnership and boosted the trade with neighbors, not only frustrating the American ban but also dimming the prospects of Tehran surrender and going to the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, Trump named a new figure in a bid to cover up its strategy failure against Iran and even promote it as breathing new life in the anti-Iranian campaign.
The Washington Post has revealed in a report on Friday, quoting an informed former diplomat, that Hook was asked to step down by the White House so that the blame for the defeat of Trump administration concerning Iran falls on him.
Now the White House's puzzlement and disappointment to take a stronger and more cohesive strategy towards Iran shows itself more than any other time. Iran has weathered the sharp blade of sanctions and has removed an important part of the nuclear-related restrictions with a positive global vision. Now the propaganda that suggests that the Iranian nuclear program is risky to the world has no effects and persuasion force with the world public and governments. At the same time, the illegitimacy of the sanctions increases the other countries’ courage to dismiss the American sanctions in their business with Tehran.
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