Expecting President Donald Trump to decertify the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action AKA the Iranian Nuke Deal on Oct. 12, Iran warned the U.S. of a “crushing” response. Fulfilling a campaign promise to “tear up” former President Barack Obama’s Iranian Nuke Deal, Trump looks to decertify the agreement based on Iran’s noncompliance on two fronts: Iran doesn’t permit the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] to inspect military sites and Iran breached the agreement testing ballistic missiles. Without compliance in those two areas, Trump sees no purpose to continuing an agreement that prevents the U.S. from imposing new sanctions. Trump wants to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps [IRGC] as a terror organization for its fight for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Houthi rebels in Yemen, as well as backing Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia and Hamas in Gaza.
Iran’s belligerent talk toward Israel along with supplying cash-and-weapons to Hamas’s militant al-Qassam’s Brigades and Hezbollah has left Trump no choice but to rein-in the so-called moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani. “We are hopeful that the United States does not make this strategic mistake,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi told Iran’s state-run IRNA new agency. Unlike Trump’s predecessor, former President Barack Obama, he’s not afraid to stop Tehran from meddling in Mideast affairs. Building a new U.S. army base in Israel, Trump has more on his plate protecting American interests. “If they [White House] do, Iran’s reaction would be firm, decisive and crushing and the United States should bear all the consequences,” said Qasemi, referring to re-starting Iran’s banned nuclear enrichment program under the JCPA.
Defense Intelligence officials believe that Iran never stopped its nuclear enrichment program, refusing to allow the IAEA to inspect what they call “highly sensitive” military sites. Without verification of Iran’s nuke sites, it makes a sham out of the Iranian Nuke Deal. Trump objected to what looked like an Obama White House bribe of $1.7 billion in cash, $150 billion in frozen Iranian assets to get the deal. Former Secretary of state John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif spent two years working on the deal. Trump finds nothing in the deal to improve U.S. national security. “If the news is correct about the stupidity of the American government in considering the Revolutionary Guards a terror group, then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like the Islamic Stat all around the world,” said IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari.
Foreign leaders led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to keep the Iran Nuke deal intact. “They agree that . . . the international community should continue working together to push back against Iran’s destabilizing regional activity,” said May’s spokesman. Calling Iran’s recent missile tests “malign activities,” the White House sees Iran’s meddling in Mideast affairs a threat to U.S. national security. Imposing new sanctions on Iran July 28 for IRGC ballistic missile tests, Trump wants out of the Iran Nuke Deal to have more leverage on Tehran. Under the JCPA, the U.S. is forbidden from applying more sanctions. Iran claims its ballistic missiles are purely for defensive purposes, the same excuse given to why Iran was enriching uranium beyond what’s needed to run nuclear reactors.
Trump’s decision to decertify Iran’s Nuke Deal speaks volumes about how the White House wants to contain Iran’s growing clout in the Mideast. Saudi Arabia, the U.S.’s biggest ally next to Israel, broke off diplomatic relations Jan. 3, 2016 with Iran over its meddling in the Iran involvement with Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia spent seven years backing rebels to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Once Russia decided to defend al-Assad Sept. 30, 2015, Iran joined forces to fight the Saudi-backed proxy war against al-Assad. Obama backed the Saudi proxy war against al-Assad for over six years, creating more chaos in the region. Putin believed it was in the Mideast’s best interest to keep al-Assad in power, something backed by Tehran. After Iran joinied forces in Syria with Russia, Riyadh had no plans anytime to restore diplomatic relations.
Poised to decertify the Iranian Nuke Deal this week, Trump hopes to put the international community on notice that the U.S. marches to the beat of itd own drummer. Obama was more comfortable to keep U.S. foreign policy in line with the U.N. and European Union, both strongly backing the JCPA. Trump’s decision to decertify the JCPA doesn’t mean that the U.S. pulled out of the agreement, only that Trump want Congress to review carefully Iran’s compliance. Whatever Trump does to decertify the JCPA, branding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terror group wouldn’t sit well with the U.N. and EU. But with a nuclear alliance reported between Iran and North Korea, Trump no longer feels bound by Obama’s Iranian Nuke Deal. When North Korean officials arrived in Tehran Aug. 4, it finally sunk in that the two regimes were busy sharing nuke and ballistic missile technology.
