The US makes a lot of demands to a lot of countries. Sometimes these are not very practical, and in the case of Iran, they are rarely the sort of thing the US really expects to get.
President Trump announced on Saturday that he would be Iran’s “best friend” and the country could be wealthy, but only if they renounced nuclear weapons. He added when Iran agrees to never have nuclear weapons “they’re going to be so happy.”
That demand puts Trump in a difficult position, because he has no means to make Iran wealthy, and clearly no intention of being their best friend. And that’s a problem, because he’s already gotten what he wants, many times over, for many years.
In October 2003, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a public fatwa ruling out Iran ever producing nuclear weapons, declaring them haram (forbidden) under religious law.
That wasn’t a one-off statement, either. Iran made an official statement to the IAEA in 2005 saying effectively the same thing, and throughout the decade that followed, including the negotiations of the P5+1 nuclear deal, Iranian officials and leadership issued countless statements rejecting the idea of ever seeking nuclear arms.
For US officials, it has long been convenient to pretend this myriad of statements never happened, because it doesn’t fit in well with accusing Iran of seeking nuclear weapons. In making the demand, Trump suggests he isn’t very up to date on this aspect of Iran relations, and risks Iran reiterating the statement once again, and putting the ball in Trump’s court.
On top of that, Trump’s talk inevitably is going to lead to the obvious, that Iran’s civilian nuclear program is nowhere near having any military dimensions. Iran is currently enriching uranium to 3.6%, and has never attempted enriching above 20%. Weapons grade uranium would have to be over 90%, something Iran has never even attempted to carry out.
This reflects the unreasonableness of the US position on Iran’s nuclear program, which has never been based on reality, let alone on Iran making official statements disavowing such arms.
More international love.
Just shows how ignorant POTUS is.
There are 15 consecutive IAEA reports that Iran fully complies with the most strictest IAEA rules and checks of any country.
The US….once again abandoned a treaty and created the mess.
You’re 100% right, Jim. This just shows how ignorant the POTUS certainly is. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khameini issued a fatwa (a religious decree in Islam) against the development, production, and/or procurement of nukes .. and the Nuclear Scientists must obey this fatwa or face execution, pure and simple.
There’s only one country in that region that possesses nukes, and that’s Israel. Most of the Zionist Entity’s nukes are stored in the Dimona Nuclear Facility, just outside of the nearest town that bears that name. The reason DJT doesn’t call out Israel on its nuclear stockpile is that he’s greatly afraid he’d be snuffed out just as JFK was in 1963.
As you rightly said, Jim, there are 15 consecutive IAEA reports that Iran fully complies with the most strictest IAEA rules and checks of any country .. The US, once again, abandoned a treaty and created this mess.
The shameful US policy towards Iran goes way back.
US/UK 1953 Coup d’état against the democratic elected Iranian Prime minister Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq.
After the Coup, US/UK installed their puppet….the Shah, a brutal dictator who ruled Iran until 1979.
The US helped and supplied weapons to Iraq ( Sadam H. ) to wage a 6 year war against Iran from 80- 86 ( over 1 million Iranian died )
In 1985 the US shot down a Iranian civil airliner over the Persian Gulf, killing 279 civilians ( 59 children ), POTUS Bush said he would never apologies.
US sanction since 1979.
The western MSM leaves all facts out and only paints the US/ Western view.
Lying about a known reality, or is the pres genuinely managing that level of ignorance..? Both feel plausible.
BREAKING NEWS: IRAN RENOUNCED NUCLEAR WEAPONS YEARS AGO. PRESIDENTS TRUMP AND ROUHANI RUMORED TO BE PLANNING A WEEKEND RETREAT AT MAR-A-LAGO.
“Trump Says He’d Be Iran’s Best Friend If Iran Renounced Nuclear Arms”
Yeah, sure he will. When they signed the nuclear disarmament treaty that wasn’t good enough. Now Trump is claiming that if they signed such a deal again he would be their best friend.
Seriously!?!?
How about Trump following through on this promise by agreeing to give a war guarantee to Iran if they renounce nuclear weapons altogether? The U.S. will attack and go to war against any nation that threatens or attacks Iran. That includes Israel and Saudi Arabia.
As the saying goes: “with friends like that, who needs enemies?”
This is why analyzing Trump’s statements is a complete waste of time.
There are only two possible explanations for his statement that should be obvious to anyone reading it:
1) He is totally ignorant of the fact that Iran has renounced nuclear weapons repeatedly in its history including just a few days ago to Japanese Prime Minister Abe. He is ignorant of the fact that Iran has made no moves to develop nuclear weapons since the start of its nuclear energy program. He is ignorant of the fact that both US and Israeli intelligence are convinced Iran has no nuclear weapons program. He is ignorant of the fact that Iran has no possible use case for nuclear weapons, given their only nuclear-equipped enemies (now that Saddam is gone) are Israel and the US, and Iran can never catch up to either in credible nuclear threats – and that Iran knows this and has repeatedly said so. How can a sitting President be that ignorant – even if his advisers are lying to him, can’t he read any opposing opinion somewhere by someone, just by chance?
2) He is lying about his reasons for his actions against Iran.
There are no other options. Clearly option two is the correct one for any sane person.
And if that is the case, why are we interested in what a proven liar has to say?
The only country to ever massacre civilians with nuclear weapons has no right to tell any other nation they can’t have them. Full stop.