Alwaght- US President Donald Trump is not in control of the US's policy towards Iran, special adviser to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said, suggesting that is right to withdraw from 2015 nuclear deal with international powers.
In an interview with Russia Today, Nathalie Tocci said Trump has “been led into a very different direction” than the one he might otherwise have gone in without input from national security adviser John Bolton.
Asked why she did not trust Trump's claims that he does not want regime change in Iran, Tocci said Bolton clearly has a different position – and he seems to be the one writing the administration’s policy on the Islamic Republic.
Unfortunately, at the moment it seems to me that the US’s Iran policy has a very clear author and that author is not the president of the US.
Tocci noted that Bolton’s enthusiasm for regime change in Iran dates back “way further” than Trump, to “the Bush administration and even earlier".
"Perhaps [Trump] should try and change his national security adviser that very clearly has a very different position on this one,” she said.
Tocci also said that she understands Iran's threats to breach the 2015 nuclear deal in light of heightening tensions with the US.
Iran will surpass the uranium stockpile limit set under the nuclear deal from June 27, the spokesman for the country's Atomic Energy Organization said on Monday. Iran may also increase uranium enrichment to up to 20 percent for use in local reactors, he said. The 2015 nuclear accord caps the level of purity to which Iran can enrich uranium at 3.67 percent.
"If I were Iran I would probably not stick with the JCPOA because indeed, as I said, the social contract can only hold if both sides live up to the bargain,” she said
Last month, Iran scaled back some commitments under the deal and warned that in 60 days it would resume refining uranium to a higher fissile degree if Europe failed to shield its trade from US sanctions.