New Backing for Trump: UK Kicks Up Pressure on Iran as Obama's Nuke Deal Nears Collapse
The Iran nuclear deal looks all but dead, but President Donald Trump is getting new support.
Fresh off a diplomatic tiff with the Iranian government, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday declared not only that the Iran nuclear deal should be replaced, but that it should be replaced with a plan developed by the Trump White House.
In an interview with the BBC, Johnson left no doubt that the nuclear deal should be done with.
“Let’s replace it with the Trump deal.”#BorisJohnson discusses the Iran nuclear deal (the JCPOA) on #BBCBreakfast
More here: https://t.co/rBgWP1Wpuf pic.twitter.com/cKEkh8VEGI— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) January 14, 2020
“We’ve got to stop the Iranians acquiring a nuclear weapon. That what the joint comprehensive agreement does,” Johnson told the BBC, referring to the nuclear deal.
“But if we’re going to get rid of it, then we need a replacement,” he said.
Johnson acknowledged that the Trump administration will not trust an agreement reached by former President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry — the twin architects of Middle East appeasement.
The time for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal, had come to an end, Johnson said.
His words constituted a new show of support for Trump on the world stage at the same time as Johnson kicked up pressure on Iran — a development that has to have Trump’s Democratic domestic political opponents disturbed.
“President Trump is a great deal maker, by his own account and others,” Johnson said, according to Fox News. “Let’s work together to replace the JCPOA and get the Trump deal instead.”
Johnson’s words came after Iranian authorities detained the U.K. ambassador to Iran after he attended a vigil for the victims of the Ukrainian Airlines commercial flight that was shot down by the Iran military on Wednesday, killing 176 passengers and crew.
The detention of the ambassador, Rob McGuire, could be a violation of international law, Fox reported.
Meanwhile, after Johnson’s BBC interview, his country joined with France and Germany to officially declare that Iran has violated the nuclear deal, a first step that could lead to the deal’s end — and a return of all sanctions against Iran that were in place when the Obama administration negotiated the fatally flawed pact. (U.S. sanctions alone, under Trump, have already badly hurt the Iranian economy.)
As USA Today reported, Iran itself declared on Jan. 5 that it would no longer abide by the restrictions on the deal, which had lifted international sanctions on the Islamic Republic in return for the Iranian agreement not to enrich uranium that could be used to make a nuclear weapon.
“We have therefore been left with no choice, given Iran’s actions, but to register today our concerns that Iran is not meeting its commitments under the JCPOA,” the U.K., France and Germany said in a statement.
The other signatories to the deal are China and Russia — not exactly allies of the United States or of the Trump administration.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Parliament on Tuesday that the U.K., France and Germany were still interested in keeping the Iran nuclear deal alive.
He said Iran is responsible for what comes next.
“The government in Iran has a choice,” he said, according to The Telegraph. “The regime can take the steps to de-escalate tensions and adhere to the basic rules of international law, or sink deeper and deeper into political and economic isolation. …
“We urge Iran to work with us to save the deal.”
But given Iran’s recent bellicose behavior, and given Johnson’s words to the BBC, it looks the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by Obama and Kerry is done.
And one of Trump’s biggest foreign policy initiatives is paying off.
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