President Donald Trump made perhaps the most globally significant — and wrong — decision of his presidency Tuesday by announcing America's withdrawal from a hard-won 2015 nuclear accord with Iran. Trump needlessly placed the United States on a direct confrontation course with a Persian Gulf country that has many ways to fight back, possibly with help from Russia and China.
The Iran deal was imperfect, but it was the West's best hope of stalling Iran's nuclear ambitions and averting a disastrous regional arms race. Trump tried to assert that Western allies stand behind his decision to withdraw. They do not.
The accord required two years of negotiations and unprecedented cooperation between Washington, major European powers, Russia and China. European leaders urged Trump not to scuttle the accord, as did the normally reticent chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas.
But since this president is on an ego-driven mission to dismantle anything with his predecessor's fingerprints on it, Trump ignored common sense and went his own way.
Harsh economic sanctions made the accord possible because they severely restricted Iran's ability to conduct international banking transactions, sell its oil, purchase technology and keep its economy afloat. Trump's unilateral decision means all the accord's backers are now free to pursue their own economic and geopolitical interests. The likelihood of reuniting them behind more sanctions is remote.
Oil-thirsty China, already rankled by Trump's retaliatory tariffs and harsh public criticism, can be expected to exploit this new opening to forge commercial ties with Iran. Russia, which is already allied militarily with Iran in Syria, likewise is in no mood to help the United States advance its regional strategic priorities.
Instead of helping stabilize the Middle East, Trump's move is likely to achieve the opposite. Iran already is fueling a destructive civil war in Yemen, dragging Saudi Arabia into a debilitating guerrilla battle on its southern border. In Lebanon, Iran-backed Hezbollah enjoys unprecedented military and political power.
As much as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks about the Iranian nuclear threat, the more immediate threat comes from Hezbollah's massive guerrilla force along Israel's northern border. Iran also can, at will, destabilize Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the message this sends to nuclear-armed North Korea is that the United States cannot be trusted to honor its agreements. Even worse, top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, stated that there is no evidence Iran had failed to comply with the accord's terms.
Trump's only justification for scrapping this deal was Israeli intelligence, based on 15-year-old documents, that Iran had lied about its nuclear ambitions.
Trump believes he can bend Iran to his will by sending the world onto this reckless new course. This is not a viable plan. It is, to use Trump's words, a disaster.
REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH
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