IRNA � US President Donald Trump's administration is trying to push Iran into the 'trap' of violating the nuclear deal so that Washington will have an excuse to get out of the agreement, an American expert warned.


'Trump wants Iran to fall into a trap, he wants Iran to violate the agreement, he wants Iran to become a pariah state, that's what he wants,' Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center said in an exclusive interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Tuesday.

Trump administration has resorted to various leverage of pressure on Iran whether by imposing new sanctions, using an escalating rhetoric, or pressuring it by putting forth demands other than what is stipulated in the nuclear agreement the US and the world major powers signed with Iran in 2015.

'It's going to take tremendous maturity and self-control on the part of the Iranian government to not react to this but this,' Slavin said, hoping that Iran would recognize the fact that 'trump will not be the president of the united states forever'.

'This is a nightmare that we are through right now but it will not last,' the American foreign policy expert said.

There will be a reaction to his 'unfortunate' policies, according to her.

The US, under the agreement, must continue to wave nuclear-related sanctions, she noted.

'Even if he (Trump) does not certify Iran's compliance, technically the united states will not be pulling out of the deal,' Slavin said, adding that what will pull Washington out of the deal is to re-impose the sanctions.

'If he stops waivers, then the US will be in violation of the agreement,' the analyst said.

The US ambassador in the United Nation Nikki Haley has recently visited International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to press the body to seek access to Iran's military bases.

Trying to accuse Iran of 'cheating' on the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), she claimed in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday that there are 'hundreds' of what she calls suspicious places in Iran that the UN inspectors do not have access to.

Commenting on accusations by Haley, the expert said, 'It seems that she is laying the ground for trump to decertify the agreement' on a basis that 'is not good for the US national security'.

'Nikkei Haley gave a long list of reasons, saying all the things that Iran has done to the United States but she didn�t mention the things United States has done to Iran, she didn�t mention the 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, she didn�t mention shooting the (Iranian) civilian airliner, the US support to Saddam Hussein during Iran-Iraq war� I don�t know who advises her but she has neo-conservative arguments and the arguments are aimed at isolating Iran again,' said Slavin who is also the author of the book Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the US, and the Twisted Path to Confrontation.

On the impact any possible withdrawal of the US from the nuclear deal, she confirmed that it will have an impact on the European companies, like Total, that are considering investment in Iran, but at the same time, she stressed, it can result in isolating the United States more than isolating Iran.

Answering a question on the rationale behind Trumps behavior when he is putting pressure on Iran at one hand to get an excuse to pull out of the agreement, and trying to pursue the North Korea to come and sit at the same negotiation table, at the other, the American foreign policy expert said that the approach is not logical at all and it's better not to look for logic here.

'We shouldn�t be surprised; he said he would make the United States a place where immigration would be limited, the United States would not trust certain governments, and 'America first' but I don�t think this is 'America first'', she said, adding that she thought this would not be in the US interests.