Iran called on Saturday U.S. President-elect Donald Trump à “change” the policy of “maximum pressure” policy during his first term of office. “Donald Trump must show that he is not following the misguided policies of the past.”Iran’s Vice President for Strategic Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told reporters. The former foreign minister was the architect of the Iranian side’s the nuclear agreementconcluded in 2015 between Tehran and the international community, including the United States.

But the pact was torpedoed three years later, when Donald Trump, then president, withdrew his country from it and reimposed heavy sanctions as part of a policy of “maximum pressure” against Iran. “As a man of calculation, he should see what the advantages and disadvantages of this policy have been and whether he wishes to continue or change this harmful policy.”said Mohammad Javad Zarif, referring to Donald Trump’s career as a businessman.

Trump insists he is not out to harm Iran

Donald Trump’s first term was also marked by his decision in January 2020 to have the powerful Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani, shot dead in Iraq.the architect of Iran’s strategy of regional influence. On Thursday, Teheran, through its diplomatic spokesman Esmaïl Baghaï, had expressed the hope that Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House would make it possible to “review the mistaken approaches of the past”. However, he did not mention the name of the president-elect. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all strategic decisions, did not mention the US presidential election in a speech on Thursday.

Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was not seeking to harm Iran but, on the contrary, wanted the Iranians to have “a very prosperous country”. Donald Trump’s victory comes at a delicate time for Iran, caught up in the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas, and the spillover of the conflict in neighboring Lebanon against Hezbollah. Both movements are supported financially and militarily by Tehran in their war against the state of Israel, which Iran does not recognize.