Leading Iranian academic says Trump ‘behaving like a mafia boss’ by re-imposing sanctions on Tehran

Re-imposing sanctions on Iran and withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal has President Trump “behaving like a mafia boss” a leading Iranian political analyst has said.

“The Americans want to crush the Iranian people, they want to humiliate the Iranian people and that simply is not going to work,” Prof. Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran said on Wednesday.

Appearing on BBC World News program “HARDtalk,” Mr. Marandi admitted Iran’s economy was facing difficulties but added that there was confidence it would soon stabilize.

Since May, when President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-era Iranian nuclear deal that had curbed Tehran’s nuclear programs in exchange for lifting international economic sanctions — Iran’s economy has ground to a halt.

Late June witnessed the largest anti-government protests in Tehran since 2012 when traders at the city’s Grand Bazaar demonstrated against rising prices and the plummeting value of Iran’s currency, the rial. Riot police were required to disperse the crowds with tear gas before they marched to parliament.

Recent weeks have seen Trump administration official ratcheted the pressure up even higher, announcing that a wave of oil-related sanctions that had been in place before the 2015 nuclear deal was reached — will be reimposed starting November 5.

Washington’s strategy of pushing Iranian oil exports to zero has several of Iran’s leading oil customers, including China and India, preparing for drastic reductions and earlier this week Iranian officials privately admitted they will soon sell discounted oil and gas to their Asian clients.

Fear of the renewed sanction have also led to a lengthy list of major multinational companies ending their business with Iran, including Dutch airline KLM, cargo shipping leader CMA CGM, shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk of Denmark, French carmaker PSA Group and French oil major Total.

On Wednesday when asked whether “the power of the U.S. economy” was something Tehran’s leadership had underestimated, Mr. Marandi attacked Mr. Trump.

“The fact that Trump is behaving like a mafia boss is nothing to be proud of,” he said, “and it is nothing to be proud of when a country is ordered by the United States not to cooperate with another country.”