Trump’s Chutzpah Backfires in Iran! Tehran About to Unleash the Nuclear Genie From the Bottle!

In Thousand and One Nights, a Middle Eastern fairy tale, one could rub a magic lamp and a genie that will grant three wishes would appear from it. It seems President Trump felt like a fairy tale and took an entire state, Iran, for the lamp, and he's shaking the genie out of it in order to grant his wishes.

In Thousand and One Nights, a Middle Eastern fairy tale, one could rub a magic lamp and a genie that will grant three wishes would appear from it. It seems President Trump felt like a fairy tale and took an entire state, Iran, for the lamp, and he's shaking the genie out of it in order to grant his wishes. The United States insists that Iran’s behavior is radically changed by its will. Iran is a powerful state with a population of 80 million people, which has undertaken obligations in accordance with international agreements and decisions of the Security Council. The existing balance suits everyone but America. It seems like the USA is gearing up for a war with Iran and is about to release a nuclear genie. But he definitely wouldn't grant anybody's wishes.

 

In the last episode, we said that starting on May 2nd, Trump has banned every single country in the world from purchasing Iranian oil. This Wednesday, Trump announced new sanctions against Iran. He banned all countries and companies, without exception, from buying metals in Iran: steel, aluminum, and copper, which makes about 10% of Iranian exports. Also, it was announced that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln would be sent to Iran's shores as well as bombers in case of a possible military scenario.

The aircraft carrier has already passed through the Suez Canal and is sailing along the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. This is the way the United States is backing up its ultimatum to Iran, demanding that the Bushehr nuclear power plant not be expanded and that enriched uranium not be exported in exchange for uranium ore, and even completely forgo the enrichment of radioactive materials and plutonium processing.

However, the United States announced a 90-day exemption from the sanctions for projects in Arak, Fordo, and the Russian-American Bushehr nuclear power plant.

In order to divert attention, Washington says that it's ready to conduct negotiations with Tehran on a new nuclear deal. But that doesn’t mean anything. Trump is now like: "We are breaking agreements allegedly in the name of better deals," but no one has started working on the new deals. As Lavrov caustically noticed, the USA has lost its "taste for diplomacy".

Nevertheless, US Secretary of State Pompeo is arriving in Russia today. Among the stated topics are North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, Ukraine, and Iran.

Britain, and France are still adhering to the Iran nuclear deal. The deal, which envisages the development of nuclear energy in Iran for peaceful purposes only in exchange for the lifting of all sanctions, was unanimously approved by the UN Security Council five years ago. Last year, the United States crudely pulled out of the deal and resumed sanctions against Iran like never before. Trump acts hastily with no regard for his own major allies. For one, the first official visit by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Berlin was scheduled recently to meet with his colleague German Chancellor Merkel. Literally hours before his arrival, Pompeo announced that he was not going to Berlin, but to Iraq, saying that there are more urgent matters to take care of. Germany naturally perceived this as chutzpah and refusal to cooperate.

Here is a characteristic commentary in the Süddeutsche Zeitung: "In many cases, the U.S. is now no longer an ally but an adversary against which alliances must be forged. That's the case with the Paris Climate Agreement and, above all, the nuclear agreement with Iran".

Both Germany and all of Europe are vitally interested in preserving the Iran deal, in keeping the "nuclear genie" away from Eurasia. It's not really far away from them. Iran is ready to remain within the limits of the current restrictions, but it requires the EU's assistance in mitigating American sanctions. Europe actually promised such assistance. In particular, the banking system of payments called INSTEX, which is independent of America, should be put into operation. Iran insists that it should be involved in the oil trade as well.

At the same time on the same Wednesday, when Trump announced new anti-Iran sanctions, Iranian President Rouhani said on national television that European countries had only 60 days to hold talks with Iran. Otherwise... This "otherwise" is the interesting part. After America withdrew from the deal, Iran announced that it did not consider itself bound by restrictions on the storage of enriched uranium and heavy water. For now, this is just a partial deviation from the deal. But there's more to come. The Supreme National Security Council put it in black and white: "At the next stage, Iran will suspend restrictions on the level of uranium enrichment." In other words, this means the Americans themselves are turning Iran into a nuclear power. Not giving a damn about anyone else, they're just luring the nuclear genie out. Indeed, Iranian President Rouhani repeatedly said that the nuclear deal is not over yet. But the Iranian ultimatum is ticking away. 56 days left.

In addition to the fact that Iran is ready to unfreeze its nuclear program, it has some other surprises for Europe. The magazine Der Spiegel wrote about them this week. "The Iranian president has blatantly threatened Europeans. "We're making every effort to stop the influx of refugees into Europe. That cost us billions of dollars, and we can no longer pay for it given the conditions the USA has created. In fact, Iran is the main transit country for heroin and other drugs smuggled from Afghanistan to Europe. Above all, Tehran has received around three million Afghan refugees. In the face of Iran's devastating economic situation, largely a result of America sanctions, the country is under pressure to find a solution to this problem".

This means that a million Afghan refugees from Iran to Europe is a possible outcome of the clumsy behavior of the United States in our hemisphere. So, Mike Pompeo is in Russia today. We're going to learn a lot about the Iranian situation over the next two days.