Talal Atrisi, a professor at the Lebanese University and director general of the Beirut Center for Strategic Studies, made the remarks in an interview with ABNA, discussing various aspects of the Iran-US conflict and Trump\u2019s claims about imposing unprecedented economic pressure on Iran.<\/p>\n
Atrisi said,\u201d US military bases in the Middle East, particularly in the Persian Gulf states, had entered a new and, in his view, \u201cinevitable\u201d phase.\u201d<\/p>\n
He argued that the bases, which were originally established to protect Gulf countries, had failed to fulfill that purpose and had instead been used to protect US and Israeli interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cMissiles were launched to intercept Iranian missiles targeting Israel,\u201d he said, arguing that this phase had now come to an end.<\/p>\n
According to Atrisi, the United States acknowledges that rebuilding its military bases in the region would require considerable time and billions of dollars, while Gulf countries have openly questioned the need to renew agreements allowing US military bases on their territory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe era of Gulf-US alliances against Iran, or Gulf-Israel alliances against Iran, has come to an end,\u201d he said, predicting that the next phase could witness greater cooperation between Iran and Gulf countries, with the United States becoming the least influential actor in the region.<\/p>\n
Atrisi said,\u201d US allies had become frustrated by Washington\u2019s failure to achieve its objectives against Iran, attributing the situation partly to what he described as contradictions and shifts in Trump\u2019s goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt one point he wants regime change, at another he seeks the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz; once he talks about destroying missiles and then seeks to dismantle Iran\u2019s nuclear program,\u201d Atrisi said.<\/p>\n
He added that Washington would find it difficult to accept the erosion of its political influence and the prospect of an end to its military presence in the region.<\/p>\n
The United States, he said, would continue working alongside Israel and any regional country capable of exerting pressure on Iran to prevent Tehran from expanding its influence.<\/p>\n
Atrisi said Washington could not easily accept Iran gaining the upper hand in the Strait of Hormuz or emerging as a regional power with which neighboring countries seek cooperation and understanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis means acknowledging that the countdown to the end of US influence and hegemony has begun,\u201d he said, adding that Iran believes time is not on Trump\u2019s or Washington\u2019s side and is seeking to turn its endurance into a political victory.<\/p>\n
Regarding Trump\u2019s threats of intensified economic pressure, Atrisi said sanctions were nothing new for Iran, which has lived under US sanctions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged that sanctions have imposed significant costs on the Iranian people and negatively affected imports, trade, oil sales and other economic activities, but said Iran had managed to withstand the pressure.<\/p>\n
Atrisi warned that sanctions could also have consequences for other countries, particularly if they were accompanied by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe global economy will certainly feel the impact and be negatively affected,\u201d he said, stressing that the consequences would extend beyond Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as Iran has the ability to withstand the pressure and, by closing the Strait of Hormuz and reducing exports of oil, fertilizers, gas and other products, forces the entire world to bear the cost, economic sanctions, despite their costs, will not achieve what Trump wants \u2014 namely, forcing Iran to accept his demands,\u201d Atrisi concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talal Atrisi, a professor at the Lebanese University and director general of the Beirut Center for Strategic Studies,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[605,68219,45609,606,21979,594,616,14590,19780,12787,2524,11665,2859,71530,9075,359,3888,34,2412,5401,591,597,39,5975,1372,2967,3759,509,48336,601,69,608,11290,603,392,7587,71529,153,609],"class_list":["post-260170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-persian-gulf","tag-a","tag-accept","tag-achieve","tag-against","tag-analyst","tag-arab","tag-are","tag-costs","tag-demands","tag-despite","tag-donald","tag-economic","tag-force","tag-forcing","tag-goal","tag-gulf","tag-has","tag-iran","tag-israeli","tag-lebanese","tag-of","tag-persian","tag-persian-gulf","tag-political","tag-president","tag-regime","tag-said","tag-sanctions","tag-significant","tag-states","tag-tehran","tag-that","tag-their","tag-to","tag-trump","tag-trumps","tag-unlikely","tag-us","tag-washingtons"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117139262861918998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}