Ali Hossein Qaizadeh, a member of Iran International’s editorial board, said the Islamic Republic, with the intensification of tensions in the region, is trying to increase the economic and political cost of this crisis for the United States and its allies so that Washington will back off from military and economic pressures, but so far every action by Tehran has been met with an even harsher response from the United States.

He also described Donald Trump’s re-publication of a Wall Street Journal report as a sign of his satisfaction with the maximum pressure strategy and said the U.S. president wants to show that economic isolation and military pressures have brought the Islamic Republic close to accepting Washington’s demands or to being on the verge of collapse.