In comments Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized President Trump for withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, saying it was not right that a deal “voted upon in the UN Security Council and unanimously approved, should be unilaterally terminated.” She warned this would damage trust in the international order.
Merkel, as with French and British leaders, have made clear they aim to save the deal without US involvement. To accomplish that, they’re going to need help, and that’s likely to come in the form of Russia. Merkel has already spoken to President Putin on the phone, and the two will meet next week in Sochi.
This could be part of a broader change in international relations. Russia was already envisioning closer ties to Iran out of the US pullout from the deal. They may get better relations with Europe, particularly Germany, in the bargain as well.
All of this was predicted by analysts warning President Trump against trying to kill the deal. With Iran and everyone else complying with the deal, the US is seen as the spoiler, and is facing a backlash for it. Everyone is now focused on saving the deal, and Europe is particularly interested in saving its business interests in Iran. The US is a threat to both now, and that’s going to be a drag on US ties across the world.
But it’s simply too easy for any war minded semi-international group with the means an/or finances to spoil such budding “friendship” by introducing any major security crisis (again) on the border of the Russian Federation or in the Western heartland leaving some Russian fingerprints on the murder weapons. It’s all just too fragile, too easy to manipulate at this stage.
They should take bigger steps than they’re probably willing to, like disband NATO and kick out US forces. More likely is to favor Russian natural gas imports instead of avoiding them. If the Iran deal will be saved, little of the US-Europe alliances can remain intact. Interesting times these are.
“…looking into alternatives to the US dollar as a trading currency.” (DW)
If the dollar-standard for economic transactions worldwide gets replaced, US influence would be reduced extraordinarily. It would take time to happen fully, but this could be the moment that really gets the process moving.
Agree totally. How many countries can the US attack at once for not using the fiat US $? Sure as hell hope Europe and the rest of the world find out PDQ, in concert.
By eliminating the bogus Iranian deal,
Trump has caused peace to break out between
Russia and the EU, perfect.
We can hope, but very dangerous.
Europe has a problem. It agreed to sanctions at the UN. It also agreed to this deal having a weird mechanism for re-imposing sanctions. The US is allowed to veto action *not* to reimpose them, that is initiated by the US demand to reimpose them. This means that Europe must defy the UN sanctions, not just the US unilateral sanctions.
I’m sure there is a way, but it is a real problem, of political import because Europe’s basic position is to demand respect for the deal as respect for the law.
This is likely to be a very positive development.