A weakened Iran is facing even greater challenges this year with the incoming second Trump administration, reportedly pushing it to what could be a compromise amid an economic difficulties and the falls of Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, and potentially the Houthi rebel proxies.
Iranian leadership "is probably experiencing the most profound challenges of its own making," Sanam Vakil, Chatham House's director of the Middle East and North Africa program, told The Wall Street Journal.
"There is a narrow window where the regime will be eager to negotiate and [President-elect Donald] Trump will have momentum to get what he wants to sell. But time is not on [Trump's] side. The ideologues in the Trump camp will want compromise from Tehran it may not be ready to accept. So there is a lot more pain ahead for Iran."
Trump has vowed to restore his maximum pressure campaign against Iran economically to keep it from becoming a nuclear superpower and vowed full support of Israel's right to defend itself against Iranian proxies in the Middle East.
Added to the specter of Trump's reelection, Iran has been experiencing a sinking economy. The Islamic Republic's currency is at a record low compared to the dollar, and its gross domestic product is down 45% since 2012, according to the Journal.
Iranian industry is struggling and producing at just 41% of capacity because of energy shortages in "a deep recession," according to Iranian Chamber of Commerce chief Mahmoud Najafi Arab.
"The activities of these enterprises can't be economically profitable" at that rate, he added, the Journal reported.
Protest against the economic difficulty could be riled up, the Iranian president's social-affairs adviser, Ali Rabiei, warned, as the younger generation is "showing signs of rebellion against the status quo."
He focused on sanctions.
"Prolonged sanctions have significantly contributed to the prevailing sense of despair, leaving deep social and political scars," he wrote in the reformist newspaper Shargh.
The Trump pressure comes as "the regime is trying to put down fires rather than solve any problem," according to Behnam Ben Taleblu from Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Iran is saying it ready to resume nuclear negotiations "without delay" in exchange for lifting sanctions, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday, according to the Journal.
"'Maximum pressure 1.0' compelled 'maximum resistance' and ended in 'maximum defeat' for the U.S.," Araghchi added. "The proof? One example: Just compare Iran's peaceful nuclear program before and after the so-called 'maximum pressure' policy."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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