The United States withdrew from the Iran Deal — an international agreement painstakingly crafted by the UN Security Council’s five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) plus Germany and Iran. The Deal prevented Iran from building a nuclear weapon but preserved their right to peaceful use of nuclear technology.
Trump’s Explanation
President Trump’s inelegant reasoning for withdrawal, couched in alleged violations and hypotheticals, lacks substantive proof and defies logic. Because Trump refuses to act within the established framework of international law he will continue to isolate the United States from the international community. Coupled with current U.S. doctrine regarding nuclear weapons, this brings to mind a protest song written during the height of the Vietnam War:
Don’t you understand, what I’m trying to say?
Can’t you see the fears that I’m feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no running away
There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave
Take a look around you, boy, it’s bound to scare you, boy
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
The author of this song, P.F. Sloan, saw that the United States suffered from “injustice, hypocrisy, the Bomb, racism, denial and doom.” It seems that not much has changed in the last 53 years.
The Doomsday Clock showed two minutes until midnight BEFORE Trump’s decision. How close are we now?
Long History of Western Interference in Iran
How did we reach this point in history? Relevant information becomes lost in the current sea of mainstream media propaganda.
In the beginning, Iran fell victim to the imperial machinations of Great Britain and Russia. Between the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, Victorian England and Czarist Russia faced off in “The Great Game” over the resources of Central and Southern Asia.
Iran was a “prize” to be won. The ruling Qajar dynasty left the country virtually bankrupt with a weak central government. British companies quickly took advantage of the situation and came to control Iranian banking, mining, and transportation sectors. Great Britain eventually controlled Iran’s army, treasury, and all Iranian oil production as well. Iran suffered mightily from England’s rapacious profiteering.
On May 26, 1908, the Burmah Oil Company (a forerunner of BP) struck oil at a depth of 1,180 feet at Masjid-i-Suleiman in present day Iran. This set off a rush of “exploration, extraction, and exploitation” in the Middle East. In the midst of this frenzy, the British treated Iranians as second-class citizens in their own country, imposing privation so extreme that during World War II famine and disease ravaged the population because the British requisitioned foodstuffs to feed their own troops.
Frustrated with the abuses of British colonialism, the Iranian parliament elected populist leader Mohammad Mossadegh as Prime Minister in 1951. Almost immediately, Mossadegh moved to nationalize the Iranian oil industry, and the Iranian parliament unanimously supported him. The British pushed back with economic sanctions. When sanctions failed the British and Americans carried out a coup d’état (the Americans joined in because they feared communism would spread from the U.S.S.R. into Iran if Mossadegh remained in power).
After the West deposed Mossadegh, they installed their puppet, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The Shah proved to be a valuable Cold War ally, but his domestic repression of the Iranian people built an opposition to his abuse that culminated in the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Post-Revolution
The Iranian Revolution changed the balance of power in the Middle East, a region with two thirds of the world’s known oil reserves. Formerly a U.S. puppet regime under the Shah, Khomeini’s Iran exhibited an independence that the imperial powers and Gulf monarchies found very threatening.
The Shah fled into exile in January 1979. His health went downhill and by October he went to the United States for medical treatment. On November 4, 1979, Iranian students angry about continued U.S. support for the Shah seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took embassy workers hostage. The students held the hostages for 444 days. A failed United States attempt to rescue the American hostages in April 1980 killed Jimmy Carter’s chances for reelection that November.
The Iran-Iraq War began in 1980 when Iraq invaded Iran. The United States chose to support Iraq “whatever the cost.” Declassified CIA files show that the U.S. knew Saddam was using chemical weapons but continued to back him. After eight years of brutal fighting, the UN brokered a cease fire.
During the war, the Iranian Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) fought on the side of Iraq. The United States listed MEK as a terrorist organization because the group killed American citizens. Trump’s current National Security Advisor John Bolton and others successfully lobbied to have the group’s terrorist listing removed. Bolton has an ongoing close relationship with MEK.
US Interference with Iran’s Peaceful Nuclear Development
The United States violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) when it prevented Iran from developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Ultimately, the U.S. feared an independent and powerful Iran would threaten American control of oil in the Middle East. Although the State Department had no evidence that Iran violated its obligations under the NPT and did not see the Bushehr Reactor as a proliferation risk, the Reagan administration illegally blocked Iran’s peaceful nuclear development based on American geopolitical concerns.
Israel’s Manipulation of Perception
Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent presentation, clearly intended to influence Trump’s decision on the Iran Deal, contained numerous points of manipulation:
- The Iranian nuclear research program that he referred to ended 15 years ago
- No evidence that Iran is currently producing nuclear weapons
- No evidence that Iran is in violation of its obligations under the NPT
Contrary to Netanyahu’s overall “don’t trust the Iranians” premise:
The problem, experts say, is that the Iran deal isn’t actually based on trust. It’s based on a deeply rigorous system of inspections, one that has repeatedly confirmed that Iran is not, in fact, cheating by, say, restarting prohibited centrifuges. It’s one thing to have a covert bomb program in 2003, before the agreement; it’s quite another when your country is crawling with IAEA inspectors. The deal doesn’t rely on trusting the Iranians; it creates series of mechanisms that hamstring their ability to lie.
United States: Who Really Calls the Shots?
President Donald Trump fancies himself a shrewd deal-maker, but Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf Cooperative Council just played him like a tune.
Holly Blomberg
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