Trump’s top security adviser on Monday urged Iran to take up an offer of talks with the United States or suffer more pain from economic sanctions
President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their bilateral meeting, July 11, 2018.Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the new U.S. sanctions on Iran were “the most biting sanctions ever imposed.”
“In November they ratchet up to yet another level. Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!” he tweeted.
The Iran sanctions have officially been cast. These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level. Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!
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Trump’s top security adviser on Monday urged Iran to take up an offer of talks with the United States or suffer more pain from economic sanctions, but Iran’s president said Washington needed first to prove it can be trusted. Some of the U.S.’s closest allies have signaled they wish to continue trade with Iran, especially when it comes to oil. Energy dependent Japan and Germany both are reluctant to cut business relations with Iran.
Hours before revived U.S. sanctions were due to kick in, White House national security adviser John Bolton said Iran should pay heed to Trump’s willingness to negotiate. “They could take up the president’s offer to negotiate with them, to give up their ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs fully and really verifiably,” Bolton told Fox News. “If the ayatollahs want to get out from under the squeeze, they should come and sit down. The pressure will not relent while the negotiations go on,” said Bolton, one of the administration’s main hawks on Iran.
So-called snapback sanctions, due to come into force early on Tuesday, target Iranian purchases of U.S. dollars, metals trading, coal, industrial software and its auto sector. Foes for decades, the United States and Iran have been increasingly at odds over Iran’s growing political and military influence in the Middle East since Trump took office in January 2017.
The renewed sanctions were among those lifted under a 2015 deal between world powers and Tehran on curbing Iran’s nuclear program. Trump abandoned the deal in May. Heavier U.S. sanctions, aimed at Iran’s oil sector, are due in November.
Iran’s rial currency has lost half its value since April under the threat of revived U.S. sanctions. The currency’s collapse and soaring inflation have sparked sporadic demonstrations in Iran against profiteering and corruption, with many protesters chanting anti-government slogans.
Iran’s assertion that America must show that it can be trusted….trusted to what…it certainly can be trusted to impose crippling sanctions, and ……….Iran already has seen the effects of the beginning .
Their daring cum bravado reminds me of the handouts that Arafat always demanded just to begin thinking he might sit down with the Israelis…followed by refusal to sit across a rectangular table where he would actually have to look at them, followed by refusal to even sit at an oval table, where he wouldn’t. When he judged the Jewish dogs and other infidels had been humiliated enough, he consented……..to sit in an adjoining room….with reps of the world’s strongest power running from room to room….
And nothing was really genuinely resolved anyway.
Maybe it’s a patented Muslim time-waster, or pride enhancer….but in this case Trump is too smart,and determined, the sanctions will be proceeding full speed ahead all during any talks……so the sooner, the better…for Iran i mean……..
Perhaps during any talks, the people themselves, spurred by judicious US aid, will take over the making of decisions, including which cells to be occupied by the Mullahs and acolytes. None of us knows anything yet. Things are far too fluid, with disparate groups full of mixtures of deprivation, hatred, racial persecution and much more. The whole country is sliding into an abyss whilst the Mullahs, sitting on top of the mountain, with poor eyesight, can’t see as far as the bottom, which certainly is there, but beyond their sight….at the moment. This could all change in quick-step.
This is an interesting situation. Europe, which doesn’t have the balls to fund its own defense, is standing up against the world’s only superpower. We’ll see how this turns out.
Some observations:
1. Does Europe really want to cast its lot with China, Russia and Iran? China is set on a course of stifling personal freedom and innovation; Russia is on a course toward poverty, and Iran is about to crumble into a civil war. With Europe about to collapse under its own immigration policies, I suppose they’re all a good fit for one another — like four climbers falling off a cliff, hanging on to each other for dear death.
2. While Europe is engaged in its own self-destruction, the US has been increasing its ties with more dependable allies, such as Israel, Australia and Brexit UK. Even Mexico, under its new Fidelista president, is working towards a mutually beneficial relationship with Trump-US
3. On the other hand, the EU’s sassiness may turn out to be just so much hot air. We’ll see.