By Robert Fantina
The agreement, of course, was violated by the unstable and unhinged former US president Donald Trump, who then reissued sanctions and threatened Germany, France and the UK with sanctions if they continued to trade with Iran. So those nations, meekly bending to US demands, also thereby violated the agreement.
Trump left office still awaiting a call from the Iranian government, begging him to return to the negotiating table where Iran would give away anything, just for sanctions relief. Trump’s judgment in this area was no better than it was in any other. The continued and increased sanctions have damaged the Iranian economy, but that nation is accustomed to sanctions and, while the Iranian government would prefer not to have them, it knows how to function despite them. The massive protests against the government that Trump anticipated didn’t happen; the Iranian people know it is not their government that is to blame for their economic problems, but that of the US.
Once in office, Biden decided that perhaps he would please the anti-Iran hawks, rather than maintain the commitments that got him elected. His first action was to say that the US would rejoin the JCPOA and remove sanctions, once Iran reduced its enrichment levels to those required under the agreement. This brings up two interesting points: First, Iran remained fully compliant with the agreement for an entire year after the US violated it and by doing so, Iran showed good faith; Second, since it was the US that violated the agreement initially, it is now time for that nation to demonstrate even a modicum of good faith by re-entering the agreement that it violated, with no conditions attached.
What possible reason would the government of Iran have to trust the government of the United States? Biden says he will remove sanctions once Iran reduces its uranium enrichment, but no one knows better than Iran that the US cannot be trusted. And he could, in fact, remove sanctions today, and re-impose them tomorrow. As clearly demonstrated during the Trump administration, the word of the US government is meaningless.
The arrogant and incompetent Jared Kushner, son-in-law and former chief advisor to the buffoon-like Trump during his disastrous presidency, recently placed an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal in which his lack of any reasonable judgment was on full display. Among other pearls of wisdom, he said that “The Biden administration called Iran’s bluff early. It should continue to play the strong hand it was dealt.” The Biden administration has simply embarrassed itself by continuing Trump’s failed Iranian policy. Iran’s ‘bluff’ has not been ‘called’. The government of Iran has stated clearly that the US, which violated the JCPOA, must make the first move in reinstating it.
Additionally, the Biden administration was not dealt a ‘strong hand’; Trump was when he entered the White House in 2017. The US was on cordial terms with a major player in the Middle East that had formerly been described by the US as an ‘enemy’, Iran’s nuclear program was limited (despite the fact that the Iranian government has clearly said that that program is for peaceful purposes only; can the US say the same thing about its nuclear program?), and new markets for European products were opened. That was a strong hand. What Biden inherited from Trump was increased hostility throughout much of the Middle East toward the United States, European nations resentful of Trump’s high-handed approach of dealing with them, and governments around the world recognizing that the US cannot be trusted to keep major commitments that have the approbation of both the US Congress and the United Nations. If there is a rogue nation among the parties to the JCPOA, it is certainly the United States.
What is the way forward? Any reasonable person would clearly see that the nation that violated the agreement is the nation that must take the first step to reinstating it. But when talking about the US government, there is seldom any ‘reasonable person’ to make such a decision.
There are many nations that want to see the JCPOA succeed, and their governments have been working quietly to overcome the deadlock that now exists between Tehran and Washington, DC. But what is clear is that the government of Iran will not compromise that nation’s security to appease the United States. And many of these nations appear to be taking a harder line position against Iran in their attempts to get the agreement re-started.
Who does all this please? When the JCPOA was signed in 2015, nearly every major global player praised it, with the Israeli regime being the notable exception. The odious Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, even addressed the US Congress, begging its members not to approve it. His entreaties fell on deaf ears. Netanyahu has been saying for years that Iran is ‘months away’ from developing a nuclear weapon. One would think that even US government officials would get tired of hearing that worn-out refrain.
But one cannot overestimate the poor judgment of US officials; they seem always willing to make the same mistakes over and over, seeing the same disastrous results repeatedly, and still expect a different outcome from the same actions.
It is possible, but unlikely, that the Biden administration will recognize reality and re-enter the JCPOA without conditions, but significant damage to the US reputation has already been done. The resentment of Iranians, a nation of nearly 83 million people, was already high due to the US’s overthrow of their democratically-elected leader in 1953; the suffering they experienced under decades of brutal rule by the US-supported Pahlavi regime has not been forgotten. The US can begin to make amends by removing all sanctions and acting, for once, like a responsible global citizen. However, based on Biden’s statements, and the advisors he has surrounded himself with, such action does not seem probable.
Robert Fantina is an activist, journalist and author of numerous books. His latest is Essays on Palestine.
No comments:
Post a Comment