The United States will continue to exert pressure on Iran and expects that other countries will support it, US Ambassador to United Nations Nikki Haley said, adding that Iran is the next North Korea.
"We believe we can't take our eyes off Iran. We don't believe this because of some ideas but because of proof. We have seen that in spite of the Iran deal, it continued to violate resolution after resolution. In our eyes, Iran is the next North Korea," ANI cited her as saying.
"North Korea dedicated their effort towards building nuclear forces and strong sanctions have curtailed them over time. However, Iran is a theocratic dictatorship and their pursuit of nuclear weapons, threatens all of us," Haley added.
Senior research fellow of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Sazhin, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, explained that Haley had in mind the fact that the nuclear issue is the key one in both Iran and North Korea, and it was the need to solve this problem that prompted the US to link the two countries.
"Although they are completely different. North Korea possesses nuclear weapons, many experts say that they already have hydrogen weapons as well. Iran does not have nuclear weapons, and in the short term it will not be able to create it. In Iranian conditions it may take 5-7 years," the expert explained.
He also recalled that North Korea is a poor totalitarian country. "Iran has a completely different situation. First, Iran is a relatively powerful country in the Middle East with population of 82 million people, good infrastructure, good science and good military forces," Vladimir Sazhin stressed.
Accordingly, the expert pointed out, the approaches to solving the problems existing in both countries differ. "The JCPOA has objective flaws, but it's the only way, because any agreement is a compromise. And I see no reason to approach Iran like the DPRK. Scaring Iran with missiles and invasion is ridiculous, because 82 million population will certainly rebuff. Such a war would be completely," the senior research fellow of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences warned.
According to him, if Nikki Haley meant that the US president should meet with the top leadership of Iran, it will not happen. "Iranian officials have repeatedly said about it. And 12 demands put forward to Iran by the US Secretary of State are virtually impossible. And now there are very strong anti-American sentiments in Iran. So Iran is actively preparing to counteract sanctions measures imposed by the United States," Vladimir Sazhin concluded.
The director of the Roosevelt Fund of Study of the US at Moscow State University, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Yuri Rogulev, noted that the US always compare the DPRK and Iran, ranking them as rogue states. "The only difference here is that Washington believes that Pyongyang has met halfway due to the pressure exerted by the US on Pyongyang, and eventually it ended with a meeting and signing of the document. Therefore, the US believes that the same policy should be pursued against Iran," he said.
However, the fundamental difference, according to the expert, is that Iran has already agreed to the fulfillment of the conditions of the international community, but now it is in the same hole. "On the one hand, it suspended its program, a treaty was signed, and now the US is calling for a return to the same policy of sanctions and additional pressure," the director of the Roosevelt Fund of Study of the US at Moscow State University noted.
