Mike Pompeo
In the last weeks of his presidency, US President Donald Trump took a rather passive stance on US policy towards Iran and left this foreign policy direction at the mercy of Tehran's main opponents from among his advisers – in particular, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. This is with reference to two sources close to the question said in the publication of The Daily Beast.
According to the publication, the head of the country focused on the fight against coronavirus and litigation over the 2020 presidential elections, while Pompeo is in charge of the Iranian direction. The President allowed him to act as harshly as possible against the Islamic Republic with only one condition – not to lead to a full-scale war. This moment, sources say, he repeatedly said in personal conversations.
Such actions, the newspaper emphasizes, confirm that Trump considers it his goal to complicate as much as possible the future Biden administration's interaction with the Iranian authorities. The Republican intends to consolidate his achievements in this area, including the economic damage that Washington inflicted on Tehran under his leadership.
On November 28, US intelligence officials linked the assassination of Iranian nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh to Democratic candidate Joe Biden's plans to reestablish relations with Tehran.
According to this view, Israel and the current Donald Trump administration wanted to prevent a major change in US policy towards Iran under Biden and Washington's return to participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The US withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and at the same time reinstated sanctions against Iran in full. The JCPOA limited the Islamic Republic's nuclear development.
