TRUMP DITCHES IRAN TREATY

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

AMERICAN president Donald Trump has torn up the international nuclear pact with Iran and re-imposed economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic that US imperialism believes is a major obstacle to its efforts to establish total imperialist control of the vast oil and gas resources of the Middle East.

In Moscow the Russian foreign ministry said that the Kremlin is deeply disappointed by the US withdrawal and there are no grounds for such a move. Washington’s action undermined international trust and was once again at odds with the opinion of most countries, the Russians said. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Trump’s anti-Iran remarks were “silly and absurd” while the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament warned that: “Unless Europe, Russia and China fill this international vacuum, the Islamic Republic will bring him to his senses with its nuclear measures.” And defiant Iranian MPs, chanting “Death to America” burnt an American flag inside the Iranian Parliament while it was in session.

At the United Nations headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” at the US withdrawal. “I have consistently reiterated that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) represents a major achievement in nuclear non-proliferation and diplomacy and has contributed to regional and international peace and security,” Guterres said. And former US president Barack Obama bluntly said that Trump’s withdrawal would leave the world less safe, confronting it with “a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East”.

Trump’s move was welcomed by the Israelis but not by the Turks. The Israelis are, naturally, ever eager to do the bidding of their American masters. Zionist leader Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Israel fully supports President Trump’s bold decision today to reject the disastrous nuclear deal with the terrorist regime in Tehran,” which clearly emboldened him to order his air-force to again hit supposed Iranian bases in Syria with missiles that killed two civilians in southern Damascus.

The Zionists and the feudal Arab king of Saudi Arabia both fear and loath the Islamic Republic. The Israelis want to halt Iranian support for Syria and Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance movement that gave the Zionists a bloody nose in 2006, while the Saudis fear that the resurgence of the pro-Iranian Shia movements in Yemen and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula is a direct threat to their throne.

But Turkey, US imperialism’s long-standing asset in the region, has increasingly moved away from the American position in recent years, largely over Washington’s perceived support for Kurdish nationalists in Syria and Iraq. This week Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that that the US “will lose out” from Trump’s decision to exit the nuclear deal which, he said, could potentially undo years of hard work and progress.

In Europe, dismayed allies sought to salvage the pact with Iran. The leaders of Britain, Germany and France, signatories to the deal along with People’s China and Russia, said in a joint statement that Trump’s decision was a cause for “regret and concern”. The latest provocation of the chief American war-lord has caused consternation at the United Nations and in the chancelleries of Europe. The ruling circles in Britain, France and Germany are clearly concerned at the effect this will have on their lucrative trade with Iran and the possibility of a broadening conflict that could jeopardize their interests throughout the Middle East.

The Iranians say that they will remain in the nuclear deal with the other signatories of the JCPOA, which include the European Union, People’s China and Russia, but it’s hard to see how this will work when the Americans pile on the sanctions regime against Iran.