He did not pay them what they were due, just as he cheated the world of continued US participation in the JCPOA, and with that cheated or robbed the Iranian people of relative prosperity by applying draconian economic sanctions. (Not to mention the threats of war.)
But anyway in recent months there’s been something of a big-league and dangerous standoff between the US (such that the Trump gang allegedly represents the US, whatever the latter is or has become in these late stages of American “empire”) and a variety of other countries. But most notably there’s been the standoff between the US and Iran, and between the US and Venezuela.
In both cases the US wants a US-friendly government installed in Caracas and Tehran so US business interests, at the bottom, can get a grip on the oil resources of both countries. In other words, both countries are expected more or less to give up their sovereignty. Good luck with that: Trump and his completely vapid, clueless, shallow cipher of a son in law, Jared Kushner, cannot even get the desperate, long-abused Palestinians to sign on to the so-called “Deal of the Century” despite the prospect of billions of bucks in bribe money.
One actually has a hard time trying to figure out just what, exactly, has been successful about the Trump Presidency so far.
Iran, meanwhile, has been quite successful as a severe underdog over the past year. It has not disintegrated despite the harshest attacks short of US B-52 saturation bombing runs over Iran; it has maintained its allegiance to the JCPOA; it has correctly chastised the other signatories to the JCPOA that they have not done enough, or much of anything, to ensure that the benefits of the deal for Iran are intact, or just materialize; it has made a huge effort to try to shore up solid (or at least improved) diplomatic relations with a variety of countries across Asia, and particularly with a few of its Persian Gulf neighbors; it has not panicked.
Iran’s leaders have even, marginally, one hears anyway, relaxed some social controls on Iranians, allowing them to express themselves a bit more freely as individuals than before. What’s not to like? This latter is very hard to discover.
And one might marginally conclude, also, that maybe Trump and Mike Pompeo are modifying their postures towards Iran. (One cannot expect such from John Bolton, the Saudis and above all, the nitwit Zionists.)
Consider that it was just a few weeks ago that Pompeo, swelled up with hubris and a sense of invincibility and even perhaps Christian evangelical zealotry, announced 12 demands on Iran during a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. The 12 demands were so extreme that, if met, Iran would have literally castrated itself in every possible way -- far beyond what has been expected of any other country by the US, including North Korea. But then…
But then, just this past week, Trump and Pompeo apparently did an astounding about-face: they decided they wanted to talk to Iran without pre-conditions. (Those 12 pompous demands of a few weeks ago seem to have vanished, although no doubt they will, in part anyway, resurface if Iran does ever talk to the US again.) This sudden change was allegedly THE question at the secretive, annual Bilderberg Conference of Western “elites” in Switzerland.
The question apparently has to do with the Straits of Hormuz, which, if ever blocked in a war on Iran, would immediately cut off or delay 20 percent of world petroleum supplies reaching markets, and this, in turn, would result in oil prices spiking at least to $200 a barrel, and that in turn would crush the world economy and destroy the notably corrupted financial and monetary systems of the world under US tutelage primarily and bring on a worldwide economic Depression.
Is Trump now suddenly saying essentially that Iran has little strategic value to the US, recognizing that Bolton and Pompeo over the past 14 months or so created a huge heretofore unrecognized problem for Trump who seems to be looking for a way out. Iran, after all, is not asking for meetings with the US It’s the US doing the asking – given the apparent fears of Western “elites”.
And given these new circumstances, if one can believe them, what’s Iran to do? Exactly what it has been doing over a very rough year past. Demand politely that the US rejoin the JCPOA before there are ANY discussions about possible modifications to it. Demand politely that the US lift the onerous sanctions on Iran, too. But perhaps at the same time express openness to renegotiation in an environment of mutual respect. This does not constitute “pre-conditions” for Iran to consider changes. It is merely a return to what was fairly and deliberately and carefully negotiated by the world’s leading countries before Trump became POTUS.
MNA/TT
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