Iran refused to be cowed by US sanctions: Analyst

In a shift of policy, the Obama administration has determined that it must recognize Iran as a “necessary player” in the Middle East following failed attempts to sideline and “demonize” it through sanctions, a political commentator and radio host in New York City says.

The White House has “finally started to see the light in the last year or two when they started to negotiate seriously, out of necessity because of Iran’s steadfastness and refusal to be cowed by sanctions,” said Don DeBar.

“The United States sees Iran as a necessary player in the region,” DeBar told Press TV on Tuesday.

The shift in policy comes despite massive lobbying by the extremely influential Israel advocacy groups to negate Iran as a regional player, he added.

DeBar made the remarks after US President Barack Obama blasted critics of the nuclear agreement with Iran.

During a news conference in Ethiopia on Monday, Obama accused the Republican presidential candidates of playing “fast and loose” with the facts to kill the accord.

Obama said Republicans, seeking to replace him in 2016 election, were using rhetoric about the July 14 agreement that was “ridiculous” and “sad.”

"We are creating a culture that is not conducive to good policy or good politics," Obama said. "The American people deserve better."

The president’s comments were specifically directed at GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who suggested Sunday that the nuclear accord was akin to marching “the Israelis to the door of the oven,” a reference to the holocaust.

“Going into a presidential election year, there is mania going on among the Republicans, who are looking to attack a sitting Democratic president for just about anything that he does,” DeBar said.

Both Democrats and Republicans have been demonizing Iran since the Iranian revolution in 1979, he added.

In an interview with the BBC broadcast on Thursday, Obama said the military option is still on the table even after the landmark diplomatic achievement over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iran and the P5+1 group of countries reached a conclusion on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on July 14 in the Austrian capital of Vienna following days of intensive talks over Tehran’s nuclear program.