Iran Nuclear Deal Flashcards
It looks like the Iran nuclear deal is ending in turmoil. According to the Associated Press, Donald Trump’s aides are preparing for a scenario in which the American president will withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear agreement next month
The Iranian reaction to the White House did not wait long, since the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told CBS’s Margaret Brennan in an interview on Sunday that the Islamic Republic of Iran is preparing its own counter-measures “including options that would involve resuming at a much greater speed our nuclear activities.”
Trump has consistently called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which was negotiated during Barack Obama’s presidency by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) an “embarrassment” that needs to be “corrected”
Not surprisingly, Trump had already threatened the Europeans back in January to slam the door on the JCPOA and leave the nuclear deal.
he said: “I hereby call on key European countries to join with the United States in fixing significant flaws in the deal, countering Iranian aggression, and supporting the Iranian people. If other nations fail to act during this time, I will terminate our deal with Iran.”
France and Germany, are looking for ways to accommodate the Trump Administration by putting pressure on Iran over its ballistic missile programme, while asking other member states to agree to new economic and financial sanctions on Iran.
Despite all these efforts, the deal does not stand a chance of surviving, for the simple reason that Russia and China, who are playing the Iranian card, are out of the game of Trump and the Europeans. As we can see from the situation in Syria,
Putin’s Russia has no shared strategic interests with either the EU or the US
and the Chinese see no reason why they should join the Europeans to protect the EU’s flagship diplomatic achievement.
As for the Iranians, if they do not receive most of the benefits promised by the JCPOA, they also have no strong reasons to continue to honour their side of the bargain.
