Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 15
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
The Iran-US relations remain on world agenda, causing controversial reactions in the international community. Washington, which used to generally receive support from the majority of its allies, now, faces impartial dissatisfaction of most of the European countries, regarding its renewal of the sanctions policy against Iran.
“The European countries are not interested in supporting anti-Iranian policies. In contrary it seems they are tightening their economic and political ties with Tehran, especially to strengthen Hassan Rouhani’s moderate policy,” Gianluca Pastori, associate professor of history and political relations in Sacro Cuore Cattolica University in Italy, told Trend.
Clear sign of the EU’s willingness to cooperate with Iran was shown when the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini held a number of meetings with Iranian officials in August, amid Hassan Rouhani’s inauguration.
The meetings, which came immediately after a new wave of sanctions by the Trump administration against Iran, were a clear sign of support to Tehran and the compromise policy that started in 2015 with the bilateral efforts of Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani.
However, Pastori stressed that there are also supporters of anti-Iran policy of the US, including the Persian Gulf countries, headed by Saudi Arabia.
Nonetheless it is still unclear whether the neighbors will follow the Saudis in their policy against Iran or not.
“The question is: are the Gulf countries really responsive to Saudi influence or are they playing their own game which only in part coincides with Riyadh’s interests?” said Pastori.