US and its allies tried all kinds of strategies to hurt Iran; Political Professor
Associate Professor Bilveer Singh said to ILNA news agency that sanctions are economic warfare instruments but they never work; it hurt Iran, its people and eventually everyone associated with Iran and its geopolitics.
An associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore said in an exclusive interview that sanction create enough anger and hatred that the US will never ever be able to come back to Iran and even if it does, it can never be trusted for the generations of Iranians this bully has hurt over the decades; it is only if the US and Americans are similarly hurt that they will understand what it means to be a bully.
Answering to question about what is the main reason of increasing tension in Persian Gulf, he added "such tensions are not new; but since Donald Trump, in collusion with Israel and the Saudis upped the ante, the tensions have become worse; probably of the worst after a long time.
"This is not good for the Persian Gulf countries, for the world that depends on Middle Eastern oil and gas, and for the great powers as this can easily lead to accidental war; still, what this shows is that the region has always been a zone of either direct or proxy war of great powers; and a major source of flash point in the world."
Bilveer Singh referred to US "Maximum Pressure" policy and said "Since the fall of the Shah, the US and its allies have tried all kinds of strategies to hurt Iran and its people but this has failed miserably. In fact, due to these political, economic and military pressures, Iran and its people have become more resilient, and the West, esp US and its cat's paw in the region, Israel, don't really know what to do.
The political science professor also referred to recent unrest in Iran and adding, "These protests as in Hong Kong are part of the CIA attempt to destabilize Iran through internal implosion; they did it in the past and are trying it again but will not work; what is sad that there are many Iranians who fall for this bait and trap."
Asked about Iran steps to reduced commitments of JCPOA, Singh confirmed that one cannot blame Iran for this; the initial misstep was made by Trump and the US, and Iran had the right to response; the only way forward is through negotiation to achieve a win outcome; otherwise Iran will feel that if you expose yourself with the deterrent to response, the outcome would be what happened to Iraq and Libya when Saddam and Gaddafi agreed to the West and the West responded, under Israeli pressure to invade these countries.
He believes the best way to reduce tension is willing to talk and added that see what can be negotiated politically, economically and militarily, and once there is political will, then we can move forward; Israel is always the ideological enemy of any negotiations specially its current PM, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Bilveer Singh, an international relations specialist from Singapore, has published widely on Indonesia. He is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore.
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