Biden won’t change Iran policy: Expert

By Muhammet Kursun

TEHRAN (AA) – Iranian political expert Veli Gulmuhammedi is not expecting a radical change in Tehran-Washington relations under the Joe Biden administration.

“The new US administration won’t make a serious deal with Iran’s Hassan Rouhani government,” Gulmuhammedi, a faculty member at the Tarbiat Modares University in Iran’s capital city of Tehran, told Anadolu Agency.

“The tension between Iran and the US has been underway for 40 years. Neither Democrats nor Republicans in the US can make radical policy changes regarding Iran. The dispute is structural and cannot be resolved through negotiations,” he said.

The political expert ruled out that the Iran issue will be a top priority for Biden in the coming months. “Making NATO a more institutionalized structure and ensuring unity in the Western world are the priorities of the new US administration,” he said.

“No miracle should be expected in Iran-US relations with the arrival of Biden. The new administration can't end 40 years of conflict overnight,” he noted.

Gulmuhammedi believes that although Biden criticized Trump's anti-Iran policies, he will benefit from their consequences. “In the near future, it seems unlikely that the US will either return to the nuclear deal or Iran will comply by its commitments. It will be a long process.”

With Joe Biden taking over as the new US President last week, all eyes would be on how the tensions between the two long-time adversaries will pan out in coming weeks and months.

On Jan. 20, Biden was officially sworn in as US president and Kamala Harris as vice president.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara