The U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Elliott Abrams, remarked that “the purpose of the [maximum pressure] campaign was to build leverage and can be used to force Iran to stop doing the many malicious things it’s doing… the leverage is there, which means the campaign has succeeded”. He further argued that “returning to the JCPOA is not like turning a light switch … the U.S. will have some demands of Iran, like exporting the enriched uranium that they now possess far in excess of what they agree to in 2015. And they’ll ask for sanctions relief. So that negotiation will be there”. Abrams also hoped that “the next administration recognises that we have the upper hand… There is no reason that we have to make all sorts of concessions to Iran. They are the ones who need relief”. “We hope that there is not a return to the JCPOA”, he added, arguing that “there is instead a much better agreement that lengthens those sunsets, and that covers the missiles and the support for terrorism, the aggression, the subversion in the region”.