Hello ... is it Trump you’re looking for?

The new round of reimposed US sanctions on Iran’s oil industry will be implemented on Nov. 4, and Tehran remains in limbo, waiting for its Western allies to find a way out of the deadlock. 

Senior Iranian politicians, from President Hassan Rouhani to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, are adamant that there will be no negotiations with the US — ignoring ordinary Iranians, who make no secret of the fact that they want their government to talk. 

Nevertheless, the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has forbidden discussions with the US president — any US president, since the prohibition extends back to Barack Obama, whose olive branches at the time of the 2015 nuclear deal were rejected by the regime. Khamenei said then that the US concealed an iron hand inside a velvet glove, and anyone who shook that hand would have their own hand broken.

Enthusiastic Iranians believed the 2015 deal was the beginning of “normal” relations with the US, but Khamenei clearly believes otherwise. “As long as I’m alive, I won’t let you achieve your goals,” he told the “enemies of Iran” in a speech last week. He might as well have said that as long as he is alive Iranians will not be permitted to live a normal life. 

Khamenei said in August that Iran would never start a war with the US, and the US would never confront the Iranian military. He is almost certainly right about that. No one in this region has the stomach for yet another war, and neither Tehran nor Washington is looking for direct confrontation.

However, Khamenei seems to have overlooked the fact that America’s economic war on Iran has already begun. He admits that his country is under economic pressure, but seems unwilling or unable to see the obvious escape route. 

President Trump’s recent tweets addressing Iranian officials have more than a plaintive hint of Lionel Richie about them: “Hello ... is it me you’re looking for?” Unfortunately, President Rouhani is not in a position to answer in the affirmative, since Ayatollah Khamenei will not permit it “as long as I am alive.” Perhaps, eventually, Trump will find a senior Iranian willing to talk.

Meanwhile, in the US, the Trump administration has published its updated strategy for dealing with terrorism and terrorist groups. The threats range from an adaptive and resilient Daesh to — of course, Iran.

John Bolton, the US national security adviser, said the terminology used in President Donald Trump’s counterterrorism strategy, and specifically the inclusion of Iran, represented a significant shift from the previous national counterterrorism strategy.

“Iran-sponsored terrorist groups such as Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue to pose a threat to the United States and our interests,” Bolton said.

The pressure is growing, both economic and political, but it seems the only person who cannot see the obvious escape route is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 

• Camelia Entekhabifard is an Iranian-American journalist, political commentator and author of Camelia: Save Yourself By Telling the Truth (Seven Stories Press, 2008). Twitter: @CameliaFard