Time to re-establish original Iran Nuclear Deal

It’s perplexing the Tribune Editorial Board praises the President’s pullout from the 5 + 1 Iran Nuclear Deal in May, 2018, and champions Trump’s efforts to use onerous economic sanctions to force Iran to re-negotiate it (‘Time to refocus on a nuclear Iran’, Nov 4.) That’s because it was the single worst Trump foreign policy blunder so far, putting the US on a path to catastrophic war with Iran, all for no reason whatsoever.  

A little history. There was no nuclear Iran when the agreement was negotiated in July, 2015; not even a whiff of a program. The agreement hammered out re-affirmed Iran’s renunciation of nuclear weapons, and established safeguards ensuring ten years of compliance with that commitment in return for normalization of relations with Iran and removal of sanctions When the George W. Bush Administration lumped Iran into his ‘Axis of Evil’ speech following 911, Iran regime change, including possible war, was a real threat throughout Bush’s last 7 years. President Obama’s signature foreign policy accomplishment, negotiating the Iran Nuclear Deal, ended that threat and provided eight years of reduced tensions with Iran.

Enter the Donald Trump presidential bid of June, 2015. One of his core issues, along with pulling 20 million off health insurance, building a wall to keep out imaginary Mexican criminals, and ending any effort to control climate change, among others, was to overturn the Iran Nuclear Deal. Without a shred of support, other than from non-signatories Saudi Arabia and Israel, whose agenda was having the US neuter their hegemon rival Iran for Middle East dominance, Trump executed his pullout in May, 2018. He thought his new hard ball sanctions would force Iran to its knees, essentially having to negotiate away its sovereignty in order to survive. He didn’t learn the clear lesson given him by North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, who told Trump he’d be happy to negotiate scrapping North Korea’s nukes once Trump ended all North Korean sanctions.

That delusional Trump style diplomacy isn’t working with Iran either; never has, never will. Iran, though economically decimated by US sanctions, ceases to be a sovereign nation should it comply with demands no sane nation would accept. Their position, no re-negotiation without full sanctions relief is just, valid and smart. Trump is now boxed in. He can’t start a war which could possibly blow up the entire Middle East while inflicting enormous US casualties, and he can’t get Iran to capitulate short of ceding their sovereignty to the US bully.

The Trib Editorial Board is dreaming if it believes the other signatories including China, France, UK, Russia, Germany and the EU are getting on board. They opposed Trump’s colossally foolish power play and will continue working to salvage the current agreement, still the best hope for Middle East Peace.  

The Trib Editorial Board is out of touch with self-destructive US diplomacy against Iran. Its vast readership deserves better.