Once again, the mainstream American press is blindsided by their commitment to defraud the US President. Last week, CNN and other networks excoriated President Trump because he did NOT go for new sanctions against Russia, but stopped them from happening. Today the media narrative pivoted to Iran, and as usual, President Trump has launched into this problem with all rhetorical guns a-blazing:
From CNN.com:
Hours of intensive talks and elaborate displays of bonhomie between President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday failed to yield clarity on the fate of the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump has derided and Macron hopes to salvage.
More successful were Macron’s appeals to rethink an immediate exit of US troops from Syria, which Trump conceded could not happen until the US is able to “leave a strong and lasting footprint.”
It amounted to a split outcome for Macron, who arrived in Washington hoping to sway Trump away from isolationist decisions that loom in the coming months. Trump has insisted his pledges to rip up the Iran deal and bring American troops home from war amount to promises his voters expect him to fulfill.
Trump opened the day railing against the Iran accord, calling the Obama-era agreement “insane” and “ridiculous” for failing to contain Tehran.
The U.S. president, alongside Macron on Tuesday, repeatedly belittled the Obama-era agreement but didn’t say for sure if he’d walk away from it next month.
“It was insane. Ridiculous. It should have never been made,” Trump said of the deal. He warned Iranian officials that if they restart their nuclear program, they’re “going to have big problems, bigger than they’ve ever had before.”
“If Iran threatens us in any way, they will pay a price like no country has ever paid,” Trump said, noting that when the Obama administration made the Iran deal in 2015, they “should have made a deal that covered Yemen, Syria and other parts of the Middle East where Iran is involved.”
Meanwhile, Macron said that he was unclear what Trump would decide in terms of the deal. He must announce a decision whether to re-certify on May 12.
“[I hope] we can combine our common views and differences. [I have] always said we should not tear apart JCPOA and have nothing else—that would not be a good solution,” Macron said. “It’s not about tearing apart the agreement, but about building something new that will cover all concerns.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump held an Oval Office meeting with Macron where they discussed several important foreign policy issues – including the Iran Nuclear deal.
“People know my view. It is a terrible deal that should have never been made,” Trump said during the meeting. “Iran seems to be behind everything where there is a problem. You look at what’s happening, in any—virtually any place in the Middle East, and Iran is behind it.”
The left-leaning networks such as CNN and Politico keep trying to capitalize on the idea that President Trump is insane because of his bellicose-sounding rhetoric. What they often – and deliberately – miss is the fact that this is actually the opening play in serious negotiations. We saw it played to the hilt with North Korea, and the result was that Kim Jong-un is now expected to meet the American president for negotiations, plus the North Korean leader has stopped nuclear weapons testing as well as missile testing, and is open to further peaceful initiatives.
We are seeing this play out in Syria and with Russia, though right now the dust is still thick in the air from those surgical airstrikes that damaged nothing important and injured no one. We are covering this development constantly.
But here with regard to Iran, the perspective is still warped by media hatred for President Trump. Never mind what Iran’s own leader just did:
Early Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the U.S. there would be “grave” consequences if the U.S. withdraws from the nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers, noting that Iran would “strongly resist” any plans for the U.S. to withdraw.
and further, the media plays French President Emmanuel Macron against Donald Trump, when the reality that Mr. Macron himself alluded to is very different:
Macron said, “I think we are overcoming it by deciding to work towards a deal, an overall deal that will enable us to deal with the nuclear issue, but also treat it together with another three issues which were not being dealt with so far.”
Macron, whose visit to Washington is aimed in part at urging Trump to stick with the 2015 accord, said the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) should be seen as the “first pillar” of a broader framework that would also restrict Iran’s regional influence, its ballistic missiles and its nuclear activities post-2025, when the existing deal expires.
“I always said we should not tear apart the JCPOA and have nothing else. I think this would not be a good solution,” Macron said. “No matter the decision now that President Trump will take, I would like us to work as from now on a new deal with four pillars, including what is already covered by the JCPOA.”
In analyzing this apparent disagreement, one must remember that uniformity is not required. Iran got most of what it wanted in the Obama-era JCPOA, which is not even really a treaty. Iran got money and a partial release from sanctions, and then continued to defy its supposed partners by conducting missile tests. Even as short as one year after the agreement was reached, as this document shows, there were significant problems both present and future, for while Iran promised not to make a nuclear weapon at the present time, its motives for the future remained unknown and unclear.
Now, Iran and Russia are allied nations. Russia has a far different perspective on Iran and its activities than the embittered policy of the US displays. One would suspect that the truth falls here between the West’s distrust and Russia’s friendliness. After all, every nation and every national leader claim the ability to make their own case. But the overall review of the agreement suggests that President Trump is correct – that the present state of the agreement is something that gives Iran far more benefit than it offers the other national parties involved. And to that end, the agreement must be revamped.
President Trump wrote quite a number of books in his life, and a lot of them are about making deals in business. What we see here is the dealmaker in action. In fact, President Trump’s hard-driving and provocative view is still a new activity among world politicians, and Rouhani’s own response to try to warn America will not work. It is also an empty threat, and by being so bellicose, Rouhani does not have the ability to easily outfox the wily master negotiator.
Macron can help as the “good cop” in such a deal, helping steer Iran toward a real deal that exacts the concessions the West needs from the Persian power, and moving toward a deal that actually creates increased security against bellicose actions by anyone.
It should be fun to watch.
The post Bad Cop – Good Cop, Part Deux – Trump blasts Iran deal, while Macron proposes fixing it appeared first on The Duran.