https://www.thestar.com/opinion/con...war-with-iran-is-going-according-to-plan.html
The event last Saturday was the dramatic attack on Saudi Arabia’s oilfields that knocked out half of the country’s production.
Both Saudi and U.S. officials blamed Iran for the attacks, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling it “an act of war.” For its part, Iran has consistently denied direct involvement but it is likely that Iran provided support in some way.
So, given that, why would Iran get involved in such a provocative attack?
Inadvertently, it was Pompeo who provided part of the answer.
During a visit to Saudi Arabia, he defended Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and engage in a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.
The goal of the U.S. policy, ostensibly, has been to bring Iran back to the negotiating table, but its critics have said it is to provoke and break Iran.
Pompeo seemed to confirm this: “Some suggest that the president’s strategy isn’t working. I would argue just the converse of that … What you are seeing is a direct result of us reversing the enormous failure” of the Iran nuclear deal.
However, the fact is that the deal is failing largely because of the U.S. withdrawal.
In 2015, Iran’s government infuriated its own political hardliners by becoming part of the deal. In exchange for rejecting nuclear weapons, Iran was supposed to receive economic benefits but, instead, it has suffered under extensive new sanctions.
But if the overriding objective with Iran has been to ensure it never gets nuclear weapons, why would the U.S. — encouraged by Saudi Arabia and Israel — sabotage the one agreement that achieved that goal?
Again, we need to go back in time to discover the answer.
One of the key foreign policy objectives of Barack Obama’s presidency was to eliminate any chance that Iran could acquire nuclear weapons. And in this, he had the support of Europe, Russia and China.
More than anything, this inflamed America’s military hawks and the Republican leadership. They shared the fear of Israel and Saudi Arabia that this agreement would lead to the gradual reintegration of Iran, their archrival in the Middle East, into the international community.
The event last Saturday was the dramatic attack on Saudi Arabia’s oilfields that knocked out half of the country’s production.
Both Saudi and U.S. officials blamed Iran for the attacks, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling it “an act of war.” For its part, Iran has consistently denied direct involvement but it is likely that Iran provided support in some way.
So, given that, why would Iran get involved in such a provocative attack?
Inadvertently, it was Pompeo who provided part of the answer.
During a visit to Saudi Arabia, he defended Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and engage in a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.
The goal of the U.S. policy, ostensibly, has been to bring Iran back to the negotiating table, but its critics have said it is to provoke and break Iran.
Pompeo seemed to confirm this: “Some suggest that the president’s strategy isn’t working. I would argue just the converse of that … What you are seeing is a direct result of us reversing the enormous failure” of the Iran nuclear deal.
However, the fact is that the deal is failing largely because of the U.S. withdrawal.
In 2015, Iran’s government infuriated its own political hardliners by becoming part of the deal. In exchange for rejecting nuclear weapons, Iran was supposed to receive economic benefits but, instead, it has suffered under extensive new sanctions.
But if the overriding objective with Iran has been to ensure it never gets nuclear weapons, why would the U.S. — encouraged by Saudi Arabia and Israel — sabotage the one agreement that achieved that goal?
Again, we need to go back in time to discover the answer.
One of the key foreign policy objectives of Barack Obama’s presidency was to eliminate any chance that Iran could acquire nuclear weapons. And in this, he had the support of Europe, Russia and China.
More than anything, this inflamed America’s military hawks and the Republican leadership. They shared the fear of Israel and Saudi Arabia that this agreement would lead to the gradual reintegration of Iran, their archrival in the Middle East, into the international community.
