{"id":190730,"date":"2019-06-29T06:25:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-29T06:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190730"},"modified":"2019-07-03T05:24:13","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T05:24:13","slug":"trump-offers-talks-to-iran-down-barrel-of-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190730","title":{"rendered":"Trump Offers Talks to Iran\u2026 Down Barrel of Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finian Cunningham \u2013 Strategic Review June 28, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump again reiterated an offer of talks to Iran this week as the two countries teeter on the brink of war. Trump says he is open to dialogue with Iranian leaders \u2013 in spite of his repeated threats to bomb the country, and his earlier labelling of the Islamic Republic as a \u201cterrorist regime\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Trump later this week flipped (yet again), warning he would use \u201coverwhelming force\u201d if Iran attacked US interests. \u201cA war with Iran wouldn\u2019t last long,\u201d asserted Trump, suggesting, menacingly, he was contemplating using weapons of mass destruction. What else could such overweening confidence of rapid victory suggest? Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the aggressive, \u201cmentally retarded\u201d rhetoric showed Trump\u2019s offer of talks was a lie.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, the US president claimed that he called off air strikes against Iran a mere 10 minutes before their launch. \u201cWe were cocked and loaded,\u201d he warned. That was after the Iranians shot down a US Global Hawk spy drone which they claimed violated Iran\u2019s airspace. Tehran later provided debris evidence retrieved from its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf indicating its claim was valid. Russia has confirmed the Iranian data.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doubling down, however, the Trump administration this week has ordered more economic and diplomatic sanctions on Iran in addition to the embargoes it re-imposed after pulling out of the international nuclear accord last year. In an unprecedented provocation, Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif were among the sanction targets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign ministry dismissed the economic impact of the latest sanctions as meaningless. \u201cThere is nothing left to sanction,\u201d said an Iranian government spokesman, inferring that no further economic damage could be inflicted by the US than what it already has done on Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brian Hook, the Trump administration\u2019s point man on Iranian affairs, teased out the logic of the sanctions. He said Iran can either \u201ccome to the negotiating table or watch its economy crumble\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The US position, by its own admission, is nothing short of \u201ceconomic terrorism\u201d. To deliberately and explicitly impose a blockade on a country\u2019s economy with the stated intention of destroying its internal functioning is a violation of international law and the UN Charter. It is wholly indefensible, no matter what justification Washington claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

Russia denounced the new US sanctions as \u201cillegal\u201d and said it would continue trading with Iran in defiance of Washington\u2019s conduct.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran has consistently, verifiably abided by the nuclear accord or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) since its signing in 2015 by the US, Russia, China and European Union. It is therefore evidently flagrantly illegal for the Trump administration to reimpose bilateral sanctions on Iran just because the US side abrogated an international treaty. It is the US that is in breach of international commitments, not Iran. What\u2019s more, Washington is demanding that the rest of the world comply with its illegal economic measures towards Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tehran has warned that it intends to lift restrictions in the coming days on the radioactive enrichment of uranium, citing clauses in the JCPOA which permit its partial withdrawal if there are disputes. Such activity does not in any way amount to Iran weaponizing its nuclear program. The country has disavowed nuclear weapons, but says it has the right to develop civilian nuclear energy in all its aspects, including the enrichment of uranium to whatever levels it wants. The JCPOA involved a self-imposed curb by Iran on lower levels, a curb which it says has become null and void given the lack of implementation of sanctions relief by other parties, the US and Europeans in particular.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s policy towards Iran is incoherent, contradictory and capricious. Trump ostensibly offers talks, while his hawkish Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was this week visiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in what seems to be an effort to drum up regional support for military action against Iran. Then we have Brian Hook warning of economic meltdown if Tehran does not roll over for talks.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a mafia-style \u201coffer you can\u2019t refuse\u201d. The US policy is not just economic terrorism. It is state terrorism. Period. It is dangling the \u201coption\u201d of talks from the barrel of a gun. Cocked and loaded, as Trump would put it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The combination of US military force buildup on Iran\u2019s doorstep, the menacing use of false-flag provocations such as sabotage of oil tankers and downing of spy drones, the continual ratcheting up of psychological pressure such as Pompeo\u2019s regional visit this week, and the dire threat to destroy the country\u2019s economy \u2013 these actions all constitute a massive terror assault by Washington on this sovereign nation. A nation which poses no credible threat to American national security or vital interests \u2013 despite the blustering allegations made by the Trump administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s gunboat diplomacy in the 21st Century with a twist of organized crime mentality thrown in for added \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

And adding insult to injury, the question remains: what is the Trump administration \u201coffering\u201d any way?<\/span><\/p>\n

What the offer amounts to is for Iran to come to negotiations in order to discuss false claims made by the Trump administration concerning allegations about secret development of nuclear weapons and \u201csponsoring terrorism\u201d in the region. If Iranian leaders were to somehow capitulate to the \u201coffer\u201d they would be on a path to nothing except validating Washington\u2019s slander and bullying.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump is acting like a backsliding bad loser. He feels the US didn\u2019t get a good deal with the JCPOA under the Obama administration, and now wants to renegotiate \u2013 using the threat of massive violence as his ultimate bargaining power.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran is right to demand that the only possibility for talks to ease the dangerous tensions is for the US to back down from its atrocious conduct. That means reversing the economic terrorism and abiding by an international treaty \u2013 the JCPOA \u2013 which it negotiated and signed up to in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trouble is, for that to happen, the Trump administration is going to have to eat some humble pie and admit \u2013 at least tacitly \u2013 that its allegations and bullying tactics against Iran are unfounded and futile. President Trump, the showman narcissist he is, probably wouldn\u2019t have an iota of understanding about the need for such an enlightened correction.<\/span><\/p>\n

The former real-estate magnate has apparently built his career on using \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d and ultimatums on what he considers weaker parties to get his deals done. Making Iran \u201can offer it can\u2019t refuse\u201d is typical of Trump\u2019s business model and his delusional sense of \u201cgenius\u201d. That\u2019s why the impasse with Iran looks like a precarious precipice with no safe way back.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Trump\u2019s declared \u201crestraint\u201d on holding back violence against Iran, American political analyst Randy Martin says this kind of virtue-seeking is perverse. He says it\u2019s like a psychopath looking for applause just because he calls off a plan to shoot up a crowd of people.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington\u2019s actions all constitute a terror assault on a sovereign nation. A nation that poses no credible threat to U.S. national security or vital interests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":190260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Iran"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/153"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190730"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190758,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190730\/revisions\/190758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/190260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}