While President-elect Donald Trump was harshly critical of the P5+1 nuclear deal during the campaign, early indications after the election were that he was moving away from scrapping the deal and toward simply enforcing it as strictly as possible.
The shift has been urged by several groups previously seen as very hostile to the deal, including Congressional Republicans and the Israeli government. Today, CIA Director John Brennan added his voice to the growing rejection of the idea the US could scrap the nuclear deal.
In a BBC interview, Brennan warned it would be “folly” for the US to try to unilaterally end the deal, and that it could have disastrous consequences. Brennan’s time at the head of the CIA is to end in January, as Trump has nominated Rep. Mike Pompeo (R – KS) to replace him. Pompeo is among the few remaining advocates of scrapping the deal.
Analysts have seen a move against the deal as unlikely, since the US is one of seven nations that is a party to the deal they can’t really collapse it on their own, and attempted to do so would probably do more harm to America’s international standing than it really sabotage the deal.
Just goes to show that the whole circus about opposing the deal was just that, a Republican circus for the audience in tel aviv. Why Trump felt the need to get involved in that who knows, but glad he changes his mind.
The only CIA director’s opinion that counts is James Woolsey because he is Trump’s “senior national security adviser”.
Woolsey has called the deal “worse than useless” and “is so bad it needs to go.” This guy is an old school ‘Cheney-Wolfowitz’ neo-conservative and was a major player in the ‘Saddam did 911’ disinfo campaign. Woolsey believes North Korea is working with Iran to create nuclear missiles that will target satellites with electro-magentic pulses and so a pre-emptive strike is justified. The ‘crazies’ are back.
There is no way to exaggerate Woolsey’s dangerousness and there is not a single Trump appointee that does think Iran is Enemy #1.
If Trump goes down the “strict enforcement” routine, I think we know how it will go. First, endless calls for inspections, when Iran complies they will claim insufficient transparency and submission, then military action…