Iran's Foreign Ministry Criticizes Biden and Urges Trump to Be 'Realistic'

The spokesperson for the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry expressed hope that the new Donald Trump administration would adopt 'realistic and international law-based' policies towards Iran. On Monday, February 1, just hours before the inauguration of the new U.S. President, Esmail Baghaei stated that the Islamic Republic hopes that 'the approaches and policies of the U.S. will be realistic and based on international law, respect, and the interests and demands of the nations in the region, including Iran.' He further criticized the policies of Joe Biden's administration, which is leaving the White House on Monday, saying, 'We hope that four years from now, the judgment that currently exists about the past four years will not exist.' According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, the Democratic Biden administration 'had one of the worst performances in the past 60 years or more.' He continued to criticize the Biden administration: 'Unfortunately, during these four years, the U.S. government's coercive actions continued, and there was no seriousness from them regarding the negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement, and the oppressive sanctions against the Iranian people continued.' Iran reached the nuclear agreement known as the JCPOA with Western powers, including the United States, in 2015, under which, in exchange for lifting U.S. and European sanctions against Tehran, the Islamic Republic would limit aspects of its nuclear program. However, in 2018, during Donald Trump's presidency, the U.S. withdrew from the JCPOA. In response, Tehran gradually deviated from its JCPOA commitments, including increasing the amount and concentration of uranium enrichment, which ultimately led to the issuance of two critical resolutions by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year. Tehran's hope for different behavior from the new Trump administration comes as Bloomberg reported last week that Donald Trump intends to once again adopt a maximum pressure policy towards Iran. In his first term after withdrawing from the JCPOA, Trump resorted to maximum pressure to force Iran to halt its nuclear and missile programs as well as its regional activities, an action that severely reduced Iran's oil revenues. The newly elected U.S. President also stated on Sunday night, the night before his inauguration as President of the United States, at a rally for his supporters in Washington, regarding the recent ceasefire in Gaza: 'We know that Biden claims that he and his colleagues have implemented this agreement. First of all, if I were President, the [October 15 attack and hostage-taking and war] would not have happened at all. Iran was bankrupt and had no money to support Hezbollah and Hamas. They had no money and could do nothing. But they did it. But we will not let these events happen again.' The spokesperson for the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry also 'recommended' on Monday that Iranian citizens refrain from traveling to Syria given the 'current conditions' in the country. Esmail Baghaei made this 'recommendation' in response to a question about the ban on the entry of Iranian travelers and goods into Syria by the rulers of that country. This official of the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry also expressed doubt about the ban on Iranians without mentioning any reason. Bashar al-Assad, the ousted Syrian president, fled the country in mid-December after rebel forces led by the Sunni Islamist group 'Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham' launched a lightning attack on the capital, Damascus. Following this event, the Islamic Republic, which had supported Assad's regime in the Syrian civil war and effectively preserved this regime alongside Russia, suddenly lost its position in the country; thousands of Iranians have left Syria since the takeover by 'Tahrir al-Sham,' during which the Iranian embassy in Damascus was destroyed. Simultaneously, the new Syrian rulers initially suspended the entry of Iranian flights into the country and then blocked the entry of Iranian travelers and goods into Syria.