US and EU at loggerheads: Trump violates Iran nuclear deal

US President Donald Trump announced that America has withdrawn from the Iran nuclear accord, is re-imposing economic sanctions on Iran, and will soon add further unspecified sanctions.

In doing so, Trump ignored warnings from Washington’s closest European allies and cosignatories of the nuclear accord—Britain, France and Germany—that such action risks plunging the Middle East into all-out war. Whilst provocative and incendiary, the announcement is not in the least surprising.

Some analysts warned at the time we heard in April 2015 in response to the announcement that Iran and the P5+1 group of countries had reached the “framework” for a nuclear accord: “In a broader historical sense, if and when it is expedient, the US will shred the agreement, as has happened many times in the past.” As it seems, in this, Trump is only more brazen and thuggish than his White House predecessors. His speech was a rant. The wars the US has waged, fomented, and aided and abetted in the Middle East over the course of the past quarter-century have blown up complex societies, from Afghanistan and Iraq to Libya, Syria and Yemen. Yet the billionaire, fascist-minded demagogue accused Iran of being “the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” whose “malign” and “sinister” activities have caused “havoc” in the Middle East!

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has subjected Iran’s nuclear program to the most intrusive inspection regime in history, all the other signatories of the Iran accord, US Defense Secretary James Mattis and other top members of the Trump administration all state categorically that Iran has fulfilled all its obligations under the UN-backed nuclear deal to the letter and has not had any nuclear-weapons program for at least a decade and a half. Yet Trump claimed Iran is on the cusp of threatening the US with nuclear-armed ballistic missiles!

As proof for these lies, he pointed to the April 30 show-and-tell presentation of the Zionist regime’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which was panned by the European Union and all but the most right-wing Western media outlets as hype and lies. The New York Times, which is an expert at war propaganda, deception and forgery, felt professionally affronted that Washington was associating itself with so crude performance, headlining its editorial response “Netanyahu’s Flimflam on Iran.”

Near the end of his speech Trump underscored—using language akin to that of a mafia don touting an “offer you can’t refuse”—that Washington has embarked on an escalating campaign of economic, diplomatic and military pressure aimed at re-imposing on the Iranian people. He declared that Iran’s leaders will reject Washington’s demands for a “new” US-dictated “deal,” adding, “I’d probably say the same thing if I was in their position. But the fact is, they are going to want to make a new and lasting deal.”

Trump made a brief reference to North Korea in his statement, immediately after boasting that by blowing up the Iran deal he had demonstrated “The United States no longer makes empty threats.” Whatever the immediate outcome of the planned talks between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung-un, the US repudiation of the Iran deal makes clear that the Korean Peninsula “peace talks” are a tactical maneuver aimed at facilitating US imperialist violence and banditry. Should a deal be reached, it will only be to free America’s hands for confrontations with its more substantial adversaries. If and when US strategic priorities change, or circumstances allow, Washington will invoke the most flimsy and contrived pretext to abandon a Korean denuclearization agreement. The Democrats and wide sections of the US military-intelligence establishment have decried Trump’s turn to negotiations with Pyongyang and more or less announced that they would repudiate any deal he signs with the North Korean regime.

No doubt the European powers are angered and shaken by Trump’s indifference to their counsels. French President Minister Emanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel both came to Washington in late April to personally plea for Trump not to jettison the Iran deal. Then it was British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s turn, although he only had audiences with Vice-President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo.

Once again US imperialism has brushed aside the concerns of its ostensible European allies in the naked pursuit of its own interests. Whatever is said in public statements, relations between the imperialist powers are ever more venomous as each pursues its own interests under conditions of economic crisis and ever-intensifying geopolitical and commercial rivalry. The history of the last century demonstrated that the imperialist appetites of the British, French and German ruling elites are no less voracious than those of the rulers of America. Some believe that if they have sought to dissuade Trump from jettisoning the Iran deal it is only because this would cut across their attempts to exploit Iran economically, and because they fear the destabilizing impact of the move including soaring oil prices. By the way, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iranian nuclear treaty has revealed deep and explosive divisions between Washington and its imperialist allies in Europe. Governments and major media outlets across Europe were virtually unanimous in condemning Trump’s action, calling for the treaty to be preserved, and vowing to defend their business interests against Trump’s threats to impose the so-called “highest level of economic sanctions against Iran.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement defending the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the treaty’s official name, against Trump. In the statement, the three leaders noted that “with regret and concern” about the US withdrawal from the deal we “emphasize our continuing commitment to the JCPOA.” They added, “So long as Iran continues to abide by the restrictions on its nuclear program posed by the JCPOA, “we, the E3, will remain parties to the JCPOA.”

While demanding that Iran continue to submit to International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring of its nuclear program, Berlin, London and Paris called on Washington not to impose new sanctions. They said: “Iran should continue to receive the sanctions relief it is entitled to whilst it remains in compliance with the terms of the deal.” However, they also addressed “major areas of concern” raised by Washington, primarily focused on demanding that Iran comply with US and EU foreign policy in the Middle East. These concerns include shared concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile program and what they like to name destabilizing regional activities, especially in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.”

European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini echoed these positions, hailing the United States as “our closest partner and friend” but indicating the EU, which is a signatory to the treaty, would continue to support it as long as Iran stayed in compliance with it. She declared, “As we have always said, the nuclear deal is not a bilateral agreement and it is not in the hands of any single country to terminate it unilaterally.” Mogherini focused on the threat that US sanctions could cut across European business interests in Iran. She said: “The lifting of nuclear-related sanctions is an essential part of the agreement and the European Union is determined to act in accordance with its security interests and to protect its economic investments.” It is ever clearer, however, that the EU’s promotion of its business interests in Iran and the Middle East is setting it on a collision course with its supposed ally in Washington.

The same day that Trump announced his withdrawal from the nuclear treaty, US officials issued a series of demands that the EU cut off its trade relations with Iran.
The hawkish US National Security Advisor John Bolton said, “No new contracts are permitted,” and gave European businesses 90 to 180 days to wind down operations in targeted sectors such as oil, energy, auto and shipping. Hours after taking up his position as US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell went on Twitter to demand that Berlin cut off German economic ties to Iran. He wrote, “As Donald Trump said, US sanctions will target critical sectors of Iran’s economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.” These statements drew angry retorts from top European officials. French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said it was “unacceptable” for Washington to act as “the world’s economic policeman.”

Former German ambassador to the United States Wolfgang Ischinger publicly attacked Grenell, saying: “After a long ambassadorial career, explain your own country’s policies and lobby the host country—but never tell the host country what to do, if you want to stay out of trouble.” On Twitter, Ischinger bluntly asked whether Grenell’s remarks were a sign that the alliance between the United States and the European powers had collapsed. The German diplomat wrote: “Is the transatlantic alliance dead? Are we still together? Or are we drifting apart for good? Sad questions.” US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, shot back a comment reiterating that his threats are US policy, noting that his tweet was “the exact language sent out from the White House talking points and fact sheet.”

In this conflict, the European powers are seeking to promote and defend their interests, which are no less reactionary than those advanced by Trump. They defend these interests via unpopular and illegal interventions in the Middle East—like last month’s bombing of Syria by Washington, London and Paris. And as they try to pursue an independent commercial and military policy from Washington, they will ramp up attacks on the people to obtain the hundreds of billions of euros needed to build up their militaries into a credible rival to the Pentagon.

The western media have raised the possibility of a collapse of the trans-Atlantic alliance and the emergence of open conflict between the NATO imperialist powers. Klaus Remme, the chief commentator on foreign and security policy at Deutschlandfunk, wrote, “Donald Trump acts as an arsonist, governments in Berlin, Paris and London are forced to look for new allies in Moscow, Beijing and Tehran.” The German chief commentator went on to say, “It is no longer just about how the Chancellor said in 2017, given the differences with Washington, that Europe should take fate in their own hands. The Europeans should now not only demonstrate independence. They would have to organize resistance against Donald Trump.”

That was a jointly written article by political commentators Keith Jones, Alex Lantier and Johannes Stern, who has obtained his PhD degree in philosophy at the University of Geneva. Their writings have appeared on Global Research, Countercurrents, Axisoflogic.com and others.

EA