COMMENT: Don’t Rubbish Trump On Iran - Maybe He’s Right?

Cover picture: PA

Do not automatically think Trump is wrong.

Iran is a good example of how many West European politicians and a bunch of think-tankers believe Trump is willing to condemn all of us to war.

Trump did not like the Iran deal because it was Obama’s deal. He wanted it gone.

Obama never believed that the Congress would ever ratify the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan and so, knowing it would not survive long in the Congress, signed an Executive Order.

Congress simply did not believe it. They did not believe that it was possible to verify beyond question that the Iranians were honouring the deal.

Those who could hear were told by the Israelis that the Iranians were liars.

Moreover, the Israelis and the bits of Congress who could never believe the Iranians simply watched the Ayatollahs of Tehran send their best generals and troops to fight Americans or their allies in Iraq and Syria and then, for all to see, in Yemen.

This was a grand deception on the part of the Iranians who had heralded the end of sanctions and their promises to shut down the nuclear programme as the start of a complex peace initiative in the Middle East.

The Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif sold this thought to the US State Department and President Obama bought it.

But Obama had to sign an Executive Order agreeing to the deal because he knew Congress would tear it to shreds.

When President Trump asked what was going down in Syria, they told him the master military strategies of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (and not the Russians) were keeping Assad in power.

Present this scenario of Iran meddling with plans to inspect nuclear sites and more importantly, running the war in Syria, supporting another in Yemen and Lebanon and, fighting a proxy war against Saudi Arabia - America’s second greatest ally in the region - to the morning briefing in the Oval Office and all the President could possibly see is deception and America needing to kick the JCAP into touch.

He says he is not walking away from a new deal or whatever is possible.

But for the moment, the President says he will not have America threatened by Iran’s missiles. The fact that they are not threatened does not matter.

With that single speech, he’s said enough to claim good reason to believe everyone is following him.

Historically there is a touch of Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher-style here.

Whatever the doubts, Europeans don’t like Trump... For the moment.

But enough Americans do: Iran has put a lot of the eased sanction income into weaponry, especially for the Revolutionary Guard, kept the mischief alive in Yemen and Syria and threatened the Israelis and, according to his staff, refused access to the nuclear programme.

If you were President Trump - who anyway, believes the original Obama deal was untrustworthy - what would you do? He’s just done it.

There is a sinister PS to this tale: President Trump told Iran that if they open the nuclear programme, unlock the centrifuges then they can expect bad news.

Not from America, but from Israel, at war ever since the day it was formed 70 years ago next week.

There are two military development facilities that matter. The fact they were kept away from the inspectors tells the Americans and the Israelis they are the important ones.

The Israelis are ready. They’ve said what they think we’ll eventually believe.

Christopher Lee is the Forces Radio BFBS Defence Analyst. He can be heard every week on the only radio programme devoted to discussing matters of defence and security, Sitrep. To listen head here. To download, click here.