Maxwell School News and Commentary

"If the White House game plan was based on the premise that imposing more robust sanctions would cause a popular uprising by the Iranian people to bring down the regime, it badly miscalculated," writes Professor of Political Science Mehrzad Boroujerdi. "Instead, the nuclear withdrawal convinced Tehran that ill will should beget ill will."

INSTEX is a a new channel with Iran intended to provide a means for the European parties to comply with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, of which the United States is no longer a party. "Based on the reservations expressed by major corporations, I doubt that too many big European firms would be willing to deal with Iran through this channel," said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, professor of political science. 

"What is happening, in light of the missile attacks [by Israel against Iranian forces] in Syria, it really seems like we are entering a stage whereby the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia have really decided to take it a notch up in terms of militarily challenging Iran and making sure that the recent victories scored there can be nullified to some extent," says Mehrzad Boroujerdi, professor of political science.

"President Trump and his administration claim that they are fully supportive of the protestors in Iran and warn the Iranian state that crackdown will have consequences," says Mehrzad Boroujerdi, professor of political science. "To many Iranians, the expression of support for the 'great Iranian people' from a man who put Iran on his Muslim travel ban rings rather hollow," he adds. 

"As the saying goes, when two elephants fight, it’s the grass that gets hurt, so in the confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it seems like Lebanon is the grass," says Mehrzad Boroujerdi, professor of political science.

“I think this part of an an escalating war of words between the Saudis and the Iranians, really instigated by Saudi Arabia, but unfortunately [for the Saudis] I don’t think they’re really as strategic as the Iranians are in terms of making these moves of the chessboard of the Middle East,” says Mehrzad Boroujerdi, professor of political science.