The Trump administration continues to use available pressure to force Iran to live a "normal country"

Zadeh's assassination affects Biden's diplomatic plans

President Trump's relentless pressure policy may benefit US President-elect Joe Biden.

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The assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist, which Tehran accused Israel of being behind it, risks raising the level of tension in the region, but also complicates the plans of US President-elect Joe Biden to resume dialogue with the Islamic Republic, according to analysts.

Iran accused Israel of seeking to create "chaos" in the region by assassinating Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (59 years), and hinted to a large degree that the Hebrew state obtained a green light from the United States to carry out the operation.

Washington has not officially commented on the operation, which was represented by gunmen targeting Zadeh's car in the city of Absard in Damavand province, east of Tehran, according to the Iranian Ministry of Defense.

But US President Donald Trump re-shared other people's posts on Twitter, including a tweet in which he stated that the scientist “has been wanted by (Mossad) for several years,” referring to the Israeli foreign intelligence service.

In 2018, Trump announced his country's withdrawal from the nuclear agreement concluded by several major countries with Iran, and launched a campaign of "maximum pressure" on the Islamic Republic, which he appears intent on continuing until he leaves power in January.

In turn, on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited Israel recently, announced new economic sanctions against a number of Chinese and Russian companies accused of supporting the Iranian missile program.

A senior US official, who was accompanied by Pompeo on his tour, said, "This administration (...) will remain until January 20 (...) and will continue its policies."

"I hope that these means of pressure that the administration is working hard to supply will be used in order to achieve a good purpose, which is to force the Iranians once again to act as a normal state," he added.

Dangerous operation

But for some American analysts, the killing of Fakhrizadeh was a dangerous act that undermined Biden's stated desire to offer the Iranians a "credible path to return to democracy", in a move toward the United States re-joining the nuclear deal.

In a tweet Friday, former CIA director John Brennan described the killing of the Iranian scientist as "a highly reckless and criminal act", saying that he carries the risk of launching "deadly reprisals and a new round of conflict in the region."

Brennan, who headed the CIA from 2013 to 2017, when Barack Obama was president and Biden his deputy, urged Iran to "wait for responsible US leadership to return to the international arena, and to resist the desire to respond to the supposed perpetrators."

While Washington was returning the US aircraft carrier "USS Nimitz" with its group of warships to the Gulf region, while insisting that there was no connection between the move and the assassination, Germany warned Saturday of any new "escalation".

A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said, "We call on all parties to avoid taking any move that might lead to further escalation of the situation," which "we do not want at all at this time."

Undermining diplomacy

Defense specialist at George Washington University, Ben Friedman, agrees with this view, saying that the killing was "an act of sabotage against American diplomacy and interests (...), and will likely help Iranian militants who seek (possess) nuclear weapons."

As for the former Obama advisor, Ben Rhodes, he believed that "this disgraceful act aims to undermine the diplomacy between the next US administration and Iran."

However, some analysts believed that the assassination of Fakhrizadeh provided a pressure card for the next US administration that could be used in any possible negotiations with Tehran.

While Washington was returning the US aircraft carrier "USS Nimitz" with its group of warships to the Gulf region, while insisting that there was no connection between the move and the assassination, Germany warned Saturday of any new "escalation".

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