World must fight against US economic dictatorship

US President Donald Trump has kicked off trade wars with several countries, placing tariffs on everything from steel to chicken incubators. Trading partners including China, Canada, the European Union and Mexico are not sitting on their hands. They have hit the US with retaliatory tariffs in a tit-for-tat reaction.

This might look like a limited war in the understanding that Trump is all for free trade. But this view denies the fact that a tectonic shift is taking place in the world. It is a geopolitical war for ascendancy to global leadership; a contest between the US and China, in which the US is losing.

From pulling out of international treaties (Paris climate accord, Iran nuclear deal) to denigrating allies to starting trade wars, the impulsive actions of President Trump are upending the international order that has been in place since the end of World War II – and mostly favored the US and allies.

But even before President Trump’s belligerent foreign policy positions, America had been gradually losing its dominant role in world affairs. A power shift among the nations of the world began after the US and company invaded Afghanistan and Iraq - and failed. It has been accelerating when they decided to invade Syria and Yemen – and failed yet again.

As a consequence, not only do China and Russia contest America’s global role, a growing number of countries like Iran are also asserting an independent and increasingly influential role in regional economic and security developments. These are also the countries that stopped the US and company from turning Iraq, Syria and Yemen into an American proxy caliphate.

Indeed, the power shifts are increasingly visible. In the Middle East, the US hoped for decades to isolate Iran as a pariah and weaken the country until it fell. Today, that goal is unimaginable, though national security adviser John Bolton continues to imagine it under the influence.

Iran is and will remain an increasingly assertive and influential power in the region, defending and promoting its lawful interests, while certain countries including the Saudi regime favors sectarianism and American-Israeli dominance-leadership. The Russians are in the Middle East region for good, building on their long-standing relationships with Syria and Iran. Turkey, a regional power, also acts increasingly independent of the preferences of the US, its NATO ally, playing its own hand in the regional power game. Qatar and Oman have also troubled the Saudis that have been tasked with performing a part of the United States' regional designs in the Persian Gulf.

On balance, the US helped unleash these trends with the strategically fatal invasion of Iraq in 2003. The US occupation and failure to create a proxy state in Iraq was followed by subsequent US efforts to stir regional religious and political conflicts – including aiding and abetting Daesh and Al-Qaeda - to influence current trends in the region which all proved ineffective, as the continually ineffective policies in Syria show.

So this is not just China the US is no longer able to contain. The US cannot contain the rise of Russia and Iran either. The countries assert their own legitimate interests and roles in the region, like any other great power. They are consciously and actively re-balancing the power of the United States with great success, and they are doing it for regional peace and stability, not for dominance and certainly not for permanent war and occupation that benefits no one.

America is losing because Trump’s “America First” foreign policy is based on the view that the US needs to defend its interests by acting alone, eschewing or withdrawing from multilateral arrangements for trade, economics, diplomacy or security. In response, allies distance themselves from the United States, while others are emboldened to act in an equally nationalistic and assertive way.

Like it or not, Trump’s America must learn the new rules and play differently in this new balance-of-power world, where others have legitimate interests and policies the US does not and cannot undermine or control.

The US is gearing up for re-imposition of economic sanctions against Iran so that Tehran accepts to re-negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal it signed with the P5+1 group of countries. There is much tension between the two countries since President Donald Trump backed out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May, but the scenario changed when Trump called for talks without preconditions. Tehran has ruled out any talks with Trump, but sanctions are forthcoming either way.

To fight back, Iran filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice to hold the US accountable for its unlawful re-imposition of unilateral sanctions. Meantime, the EU, Britain, France and Germany, China and Russia have repeatedly reaffirmed their support "to the continued full and effective implementation of the JCPOA by all sides".

The EU has even given support for the deal by giving European firms legal cover to operate in Iran. The European Council has endorsed the update of the blocking statute annexes on the nuclear deal with Iran. The "blocking statute" forbids EU firms from complying with US sanctions, allowing them to recover damages from such penalties and nullifying any foreign court rulings against them. But is this enough?

The blocking statute was due to enter force on August 6, when the first set of US sanctions were due. The second set is due November 4, just before US legislative elections. This action is clearly telling the whole world that the US administration is becoming even weaker and showing little ability to settle disputes with Iran and other countries, and has nothing left except extremely vicious warmongering and bullying tactics.

The US is losing its mind and now it is time to get united to fight against this economic dictator in the world and the economic dictatorship represented by the US government under Donald Trump. This behavior has fully violated the rules and regulations of the United Nations and the rest of the global community.

The US uses economic sanctions to impose its will on other nations. It takes illegal actions as it desires and cares not for International Law or the UN Charter, or the General Assembly resolutions, or the Security Council resolutions. This kind of dictatorship must be seriously condemned and confronted by the UN and all member countries.

The anti-Iran measures taken by the US are much too systematic, deliberate, and free of control by diplomatic morality and conscience. What the US government is showing is really an under par mentality, and like a dictator is making wrong divisions based on “America First” war on diplomacy. This scenario must get adequate attention from the international civil society because nobody can predict what further dangerous and risky steps will be taken by the “dictator-in-chief” at the White House in order to “milk” Saudi Arabia and appease Israel.

Treating Iran as an enemy would wreak havoc on western interests. The Iranian government has responded in a very firm attitude that Iran will not yield to US pressures to re-negotiate the nuclear deal or stop supporting Syria, Iraq and the resistance front in the war against foreign-backed terrorism, Israeli Zionism and expansionism, Saudi Wahhabism, and American militarism.

It is very clear that the economic dictatorship represented by the US is very negative for global development and contributes strong destructive factors to the world business and energy society. The whole world has to unite against the Trump White House and their economic dictatorship. Today, it is the economy of Iran they are after. Tomorrow, it could be the economy of another nation, most probably China and Russia. The time to fight back is now.

(Courtesy of Fars News Agency)

EA/SS