Tehran Urges Trump to Revoke Hostile Policies and Rethink Approach to Iran

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Iran has called on US President-elect Donald Trump to reverse the "maximum pressure" strategy he pursued during his first term, which Tehran believes has failed to yield positive results.

During a weekly government briefing, Iranian spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani stated that the Trump Administration should reconsider its approach to Iran, describing it as misguided and ineffective, The Caspian Post reports, citing foreign media. 

"The policy of maximum pressure on Iran, which Donald Trump pursued, has completely failed. We call on the Trump Administration to reconsider this misguided policy. The [Iranian] government is developing various strategies for an economic response [to potential new US restrictions] and aims to fully safeguard national interests in line with the high ideals of the Islamic Revolution," she said.

Answering a question about the possibility of negotiations with the new administration, Mohajerani noted that "Iran, led by the Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei], will do everything it can to protect the interests of the Iranian people." The spokeswoman emphasized that the responsibility for the breakdown of the Iran nuclear deal lies entirely with Trump.

Iran and the group of international mediators - Russia, the UK, Germany, China, the US, and France - signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, which entailed the gradual lifting of Western sanctions in exchange for curbing the development of Iran’s nuclear program. The signing of this agreement marked the end of the crisis that began in 2004, when Western states accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons. Subsequently, they imposed harsh sanctions on the Islamic Republic, including an oil export embargo. In 2018, Trump decided to withdraw the United States from the agreement and reinstated all sanctions against Iran.

On January 3, 2020, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) special forces commander General Qasem Soleimani was killed near Baghdad airport under Trump’s orders. His assassination triggered a new round of escalation in relations between Tehran and Washington. On January 8, 2020, Iran carried out a retaliatory strike at two facilities in Iraq used by American servicemen. In 2024, the Supreme Court of the Islamic Republic announced that criminal cases had been initiated against 94 American citizens, including Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former CENTCOM Commander Kenneth McKenzie.

On November 11, US Representative Elise Stefanik claimed that Trump would continue his policy of maximum pressure on Iran. According to CNN, Trump offered Stefanik the position of the new US Permanent Representative to the United Nations.