Disregarding the implications for the peace of the world, President Trump declared today that the U.S. is pulling out of the historic nuclear accord with Iran. The decision deals a powerful blow not just to the prospects for world peace but to the economic interest of almost every major country in Europe.
Trump’s declaration leaves Iran with the choice of trying to salvage what might remain of the deal or, as it has said it might do, restart its nuclear program.
Only hours before the Trump announcement, some news organizations reported that the president might re-impose only the sanctions that were slated to resume this week, waiting before moving on the others. Instead, Trump said he would re-impose all sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 deal, not just the ones facing the Friday deadline. By exercising the so called “nuclear option” of re-imposing every conceivable sanction against not just Iran but against any country that purchases oil and other items from Iran, Trump has all but guaranteed the collapse of the entire deal.
It was appropriate then that the person in the doorway through which Trump exited the news conference today was John Bolton, the war hawk he has appointed as the new national security advisor. Bolton has long called for regime change in Iran, advocating full-scale attacks upon and an invasion of that country. The new secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is another war hawk who, as CIA director, often advocated military action as a preferred course of action by the United States.
The announcement today shows the U.S.’ willingness to punish anyone, including Europeans who count on America as a friend, if they trade with Iran.
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The agreement, signed in 2015 by the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, and Iran, lifted sanctions against Iran in exchange for that country agreeing to conditions on its nuclear program that made production of a bomb impossible.
Trump ignored specific appeals over the last weeks from all of the major European allies of the U.S. Only hours before his announcement, Trump spurned the last minute appeals that came from Britain, France, and Germany, whose officials were meeting with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, Abbas Araghici, in Brussels.
With the collapse of the deal, Iran is free to resume enrichment of its uranium while businesses, banks, and countries dealing with Iran will have to scramble to get out of those arrangements or risk the wrath of U.S. officials or banks in their own countries, for example, doing the bidding of Trump.
Almost all international observers, all European countries, the UN, and even Trump’s own tea party secretary of state, Pompeo, have agreed repeatedly that Iran has been living up to the deal. But the agreement’s critics, Trump, many in the GOP, Israel, and the right-wing Arab Gulf states say the deal itself was not punishing Iran enough.
It is feared that the president’s move, in addition to increasing the likelihood of a war in the Mideast, could severely damage U.S. relations with Europe. European countries have worked long and hard to appease President Trump by successfully getting Iran to accept additional restrictions on its nuclear program. The message to all of them today is that appeasement of Trump yields no measurable results. He is determined to proceed along a path to war.
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