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What North Korea can tell us about Iran
Yesterday, the administration announced that it was re-instituting sanctions against Iran. These are the sanctions that had been suspended in the wake of the deal to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons that had been signed by President Obama along with leaders from the United Kingdom, Russia, France, China, Germany and the European Union. The goal of that deal had been to trade Iran’s nuclear weapons program for relief from some of the sanctions the international community had leveled upon it. In general, international organizations found that the deal was working.
President Trump had a problem with this deal, in particular the fact that it was negotiated by the Obama administration. Without any basis in fact, with the opposition of much of the international community, and with the support of only one state actor — Israel — the administration repudiated that deal. The other signatories are working feverishly to save the deal without the United States, only further isolating us and giving opportunities to foreign companies that could otherwise to to U.S. firms.
This policy change was not a surprise. Trump had campaigned against the Iran anti-nuclear deal prior to the election. Despite his hard-line rhetoric, our allies in Canada and France in particular lobbied him hard not to take this step. Their efforts were, unfortunately, only wishful…
