Can Donald Trump use the same strategy with Iran as with North Korea?

The tension is reviving between Washington and Tehran and as often with Donald Trump everything started from his tweets. Sunday night, the US president posted a message on the social network where he threatened the Islamic Republic of Iran: "We are no longer a country that supports your demented words of violence and death. The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif replied on Monday, still on Twitter, "Be careful." An episode reminiscent of Donald Trump's virulent remarks last summer, this time against North Korea.

Read also – "Be careful", replies Iran to Donald Trump

At the time, the US president had promised "fire and anger" to Kim Jong-un's regime if he continued to make threats against the United States. An attitude that had raised fears of military escalation between the two nations. A year later, the situation was surprisingly decimated as Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un finally met. "We are going to have a great relationship," even the US leader promised after a historic handshake.

The "Maximum Pressure" Strategy

Between the two events, Donald Trump alternated brands of goodwill towards Kim Jong-a and muscled callbacks. In October, when his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson – since replaced by Mike Pompeo – had begun negotiations with the North Korean regime, Donald Trump had tweeted that he was wasting his time: "Keep your energy, Rex, we will do what we have to do. " In May, a few weeks before the scheduled meeting with Kim Jong-un, the US head of state even decided to cancel the summit denouncing "the anger" and "hostility" of the Pyongyang regime.

The meeting finally took place but these events illustrate the strategy of Donald Trump against a hostile country. It consists of both agreeing to negotiate while threatening the leaders of the state to leave the table at any time to get the best deal possible. Between the carrot and the stick. A theorized strategy on the other side of the Atlantic such as "maximum pressure."

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Maybe at some point Iran will call us and maybe we will sign a new agreement, maybe

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Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and reactivating sanctions against the regime, Washington is trying to weaken Tehran to tilt the balance of power in its favor. Donald Trump has always considered that the balance negotiated by Barack Obama was bad but that he could consider a new agreement that would go beyond the only nuclear issue and take into account the Iranian influence in the region. A possibility that has always been rejected by the Iranian regime

A week ago Donald Trump said: "Iran is no longer the same country as it was five months ago, I can tell you. [19459017Theyhavebigproblemsthattheycansolveprobablymoreeasilyiftheytalktous"AndtheUSpresidentadds:"MaybeatsomepointIranwillcallusandmaybewewillsignanewagreementmaybenot"

However, the Iranian case does not is not quite similar to Korean. First of all, Tehran is less isolated than Pyongyang on the international scene. Iran does not have the atomic weapon either. Finally, the US administration has regularly underlined its support for regime change in Tehran. A position that complicates relations with Iran but tempered on Sunday the head of the American diplomacy Mike Pompeo. He badured that he only wanted "the regime to significantly change its behavior, both inside Iran and on the world stage".