NOURNEWS - Robert Mali, the U.S. special representative for Iran, admitted in an interview that the assassination of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, has added to U.S. problems in the region.
In an interview with popular OMSN news anchor Mehdi Hassan, Robert Mali reiterated that U.S. politicians do not oppose the removal of General Soleimani, but such a move has not helped make the U.S. safer and ease tensions.
Mali responded to a question about whether the Iranian people had the right to be angry about the assassination of General Soleimani for purely political reasons inside the United States, saying that his predecessor's policy of making the United States safer by advancing the maximum pressure campaign and assassinating General Soleimani did not go anywhere.
"I think they are the American people who have the right to be angry because a policy designed to make America safer or claimed to be safer has a definite status quo after three years: America is less secure," he said. Moreover, because Iran has a more expensive nuclear program and has intensified its activities in the region. "These are exactly what the Trump administration said it was going to deal with."
"Therefore, I do not think that the main issue is knowing my opinion about [the assassination] of Qasem Soleimani because we all agree on this," he added. The question is whether his assassination secured the United States. Again, the verdict is clear. "It only created more problems, rather than easing tensions."
In another part of his remarks, Robert Mali admitted to the "deplorable failure" of the "maximum pressure campaign" used against Iran during Donald Trump's presidency, claiming that the United States was ready to return to the JCPOA.
"Look, we inherited a situation that President Biden has decided to end," he said. "The Trump administration's policy of maximum pressure on Iran has failed miserably and has hurt US interests."
Mali stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran, after the policy of maximum pressure, has intensified its activities in the region and accelerated its nuclear program, while the policy of the Trump administration was supposed to prevent such developments.
NOURNEWS