Expect more belligerence from Iran under Biden administration
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. (Reuters)
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Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei surprisingly ordered all factions of Iraqi armed groups to stop attacking US interests in Iraq late last year. A senior commander of an Iranian-backed armed group involved in such attacks told Middle East Eye: “Khamenei’s orders were straightforward and clear. All attacks targeting US interests in Iraq must stop.”
This was not a strategic shift but a tactical one. The regime was fearful that the Trump administration would attack Iran if US entities were targeted. Some Iranian leaders thought the White House was looking for an excuse to attack. As a result, the theocratic establishment halted its provocations in order to avoid giving Donald Trump a political victory and risk its own hold on power.
United States President-elect Joe Biden has nominated a key negotiator of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement to be the US’s next deputy secretary of state, the second-highest position at the State Department.