Iranians wave national flags as they listen to a public speech by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the eastern city of Shahroud on the 4th of December 2018. Picture by Ebrahim Seydi/DPA/PA Images. All rights reserved.
While Iran’s regional adversaries such as Israel and Saudi Arabia along with some Iranian opposition groups may feel encouraged by President Trump’s psychological war against Iran symbolized by his rejection of the nuclear agreement and the re-imposition of US sanctions, they are, somewhat less certain about his end game. This is due to the fact that US policy on the one hand hints at promoting regime change in all but name while on the other, it seeks to pressure Iran for talks regarding a new ‘deal’, which would ostensibly make regime change redundant.
