US plans to pressure Iran have failed

After several factories of the Saudi oil and gas state-owned company Saudi Aramco were attacked by drones on September 14, Washington imposed sanctions against the National Bank of Iran, and US President Donald Trump said that he could have attacked Iran at any moment, but doesn't want to provoke escalation.

In an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza, first deputy dean of the Faculty of World Economics and International Affairs of the HSE, Igor Kovalev, expressed the view that the US’s plans to pressure Iran have failed: “It’s not just that Iran has been living under sanctions for many years, and quite successfully. Sanctions are a huge burden onany economy, including the Iranian one. Still, Iran continues to develop, including in military-technological plan. Iran is a pretty strong regional power in the Middle East that cannot be ignored."

In addition, according to Kovalev, Americans did not manage to receive support of their traditional allies: “EU countries, even such devoted to the US as Great Britain, have not withdrawn from the nuclear deal. They have their own economic interests in the region, in Iran in particular, and are actively opposing attempts of the US ti isolate Iran and cause even greater economic damage to it. Situation around Iran [after the drone attack on Saudi Arabia] is alarming: it’s hard to say who's behind these events, who can benefit from it. It could be a provocation carried out by third party, or perhaps a part of Iran's plan, because Iran is a very complex country."