Trump Seeks 'Coalition Of The Willing' Against Iran
24
June, 2019
After
a somewhat quiet weekend the Trump administration today engaged in
another push against Iran.
Today
the Treasury Department sanctioned the
leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It also
sanctioned Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and his office!
There will be no more Disney Land visits for them.
There
is more to come:
Josh Rogin - @joshrogin - 16:18 utc - 24 Jun 2019
Mnuchin: "The president has instructed me that we will be designating [Iran's foreign minister Javad] Zarif later this week." cc: @JZarif
The
Treasury Secretary will designate Javad Zarif as what? A terrorist?
Zarif is quite effective in communicating the Iranian standpoint on
Twitter and other social media. Those accounts will now be shut down.
The
Trump administration's special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, said today
that Iran should respond to U.S. diplomacy with diplomacy.
Sanctioning Iran's chief diplomat is probably not the way to get
there.
All
those who get sanctioned by the U.S. will gain in popularity in Iran.
These U.S. measures will only unite the people of Iran and strengthen
their resolve.
Iran
will respond to this new onslaught by asymmetric means of which it
has plenty.
On
Saturday Trump said that all he wants is that Iran never gets nuclear
weapons. But the State Department wants much more. Hook
today said that
the U.S. would only lift sanctions if a comprehensive deal is made
that includes ballistic missile and human rights issues. Iran can not
agree to that. But this is not the first time that Pompeo demanded
more than Trump himself. Is it Pompeo, not Trump, who is pressing
this expanded version to make any deal impossible?
Brian
Hook is by the way a loon who does not even understand the meaning of
what he himself says:
laurence norman @laurnorman - 10:53 utc - 24 Jun 2019
US Hook says Iran knew what getting into when struck deal with president who had 1 1/2 yr left in office. "They knew what they were getting into...They knew that there was a great possibility that the next president could come in & leave the deal." Note: US elections 17 months away
Those
are two good arguments for Iran to never again agree to any deal with
the 'non-agreement-capable' United States.
It
seems obvious from the above that the Trump administration has no
real interest in
reasonable negotiations with Iran:
“The administration is not really interested in negotiations now,” said Robert Einhorn, a former senior State Department official who was involved in negotiations with Iranian officials during the Obama administration. “It wants to give sanctions more time to make the Iranians truly desperate, at which point it hopes the negotiations will be about the terms of surrender.”
That
is part of the strategy. But the real issue is deeper:
Max Abrahms @MaxAbrahms - 16:41 utc - 24 Jun 2019
Pro tip: Sanctions against #Iran aren’t to retaliate for the downed drone or to punish tanker attacks or to improve the nuclear deal or to help the Iranian people but to foment revolution against the regime. The strategy is regime change with velvet gloves.
The
U.S. now tries to build an international coalition against Iran.
Trump invited China and Japan to protect their tankers in the Middle
East:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 0:08 utc - 24 Jun 2019
China gets 91% of its Oil from the Straight, Japan 62%, & many other countries likewise. So why are we protecting the shipping lanes for other countries (many years) for zero compensation. All of these countries should be protecting their own ships on what has always been....
....a dangerous journey. We don’t even need to be there in that the U.S. has just become (by far) the largest producer of Energy anywhere in the world! The U.S. request for Iran is very simple - No Nuclear Weapons and No Further Sponsoring of Terror!
One
wonders what the U.S. Central Command and the U.S. Navy will say when
that Chinese carrier group arrives in the Gulf region.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday he wants to build a global coalition against Iran during urgent consultations in the Middle East, following a week of crisis that saw the United States pull back from the brink of a military strike on Iran.
Pompeo spoke as he left Washington for Saudi Arabia, followed by the United Arab Emirates, ..
...
"We’ll be talking with them about how to make sure that we are all strategically aligned, and how we can build out a global coalition, a coalition not only throughout the Gulf states, but in Asia and in Europe, that understands this challenge as it is prepared to push back against the world’s largest state sponsor of terror,” Pompeo said about Iran.
Pompeo
was hastily sent to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Brian Hook is now in
Oman and Bolton is in Israel. The U.S. will also pressure Europe and
NATO to join a new 'coalition of the willing'. The UK will likely
follow any U.S. call as it needs a trade deal to survive after
Brexit.
Other
countries are best advised to stay out.
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