Alwaght- Former US national security adviser Susan Rice rebuked Donald Trump's "Reckless" decision to pull the US out a landmark international nuclear deal with Iran as "most foolish and consequential national security decision of" the republic president's tenure.
Trumped announced on Tuesday his decision to unilaterally withdraw the US from the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), complaining that the deal, inked by his democrat predecessor Barack Obama, did not address Iran’s ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 or its role in the West Asia region.
Ms. Rise in an opinion published by The NY Times titled as Trump’s Most Foolish Decision Yet, suggested that Trump's move not only will fail to "force Iran back to the negotiating table" but also will leave "an inconstant America isolated from its allies and far less safe."
Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the US, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015, and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.
Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against it.
Former US national security adviser went on to say that according to all reliable reports Iran has always been committed to the landmark deal's terms, and the Washington's one-sided violation of the pact will free Tehran from all those constraints and make it "able to resume its nuclear activities without being blamed for violating the agreement".
"According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United States intelligence community, the United Nations Security Council and the president’s top advisers, Iran has fully complied with its obligations. As required, Iran relinquished 97 percent of its enriched uranium stockpile, dismantled two-thirds of its centrifuges and its entire plutonium facility, abided by the most intrusive international inspection and monitoring regime in history, and forswore ever producing a nuclear weapon," Ms. Rice wrote in her paper on Tuesday.
"Instead, it is the United States that is about to unilaterally violate the very agreement it negotiated by reimposing nuclear-related sanctions while Iran remains in compliance. Mr. Trump disregarded the pleas of our closest European allies, who worked for months to try to address his objections. Instead of reaching agreement with our allies, President Trump told them to get lost and now will penalize European companies for abiding by an agreement that is working. The political and economic consequences for our relationship with Europe will most likely be considerable." She added.
The American diplomat also highlighted Trump's previous moves to scrap international deals that the US has entered in suggesting that such irresponsible decisions undermine the country's reliability.
"The costs to American global leadership are steep. When the United States unilaterally abrogates an international agreement in the absence of any breach, we undermine international perceptions of our reliability and responsibility. That is precisely what we have already done with the Paris climate agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership."
She also predicted that trump's scrapping the deal will urge Iran "resume its nuclear activities unfettered — either gradually or rapidly — and even withdraw from the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons".
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the West Asian country could stay in the deal for now, if the remaining signatories can provide sufficient trade and investment benefits. Yet this outcome is far from assured and likely unsustainable, given the ability of the US to impose painful sanctions against foreign entities doing business with Iran.
Rise further counted threats exposed by Trump's violating the Iran deal as: pushing Saudi Arabia, Iran's regional rival, and others in the region to push to obtain a nuclear capacity; bolstering Russia and China’s position in the region in light of America’s abrogation of its commitments, moving Israeli regime into conflict with Iran, as Tel Aviv bets it can draw in Washington
"Under any scenario, America will be less safe; and in the worst case, we could face the choice of going to war or acquiescing to a nuclear-armed Iran," Rice concluded.
"President Trump, disdainful of any success of his predecessor, has long been determined to destroy this agreement, even though it has served American interests and won the grudging support of many of its original critics. The president spiked the Iran deal out of spite and hubris, with no viable alternative. He asserts that, with increased pressure on Iran, he can negotiate a better deal. But only someone who knows nothing about Iran would presume that it will pay more under duress to get the same thing it was promised three years earlier"
Rice, moreover, touched on Trump's remarks who claimed killing Iran deal "Today's action sends a critical message: The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them."
Former US national security adviser explained: "If Mr. Trump thinks he is sending a strong message of resolve to North Korea, he is again mistaken. Instead, he is demonstrating to a far more advanced and unpredictable adversary on the eve of negotiations that the United States cannot be trusted. He has provided proximate proof that any deal the United States makes, even a successful one, may be tossed aside on the whim of this or any other president. Our negotiating partners, including Japan, South Korea and China, will doubt our credibility when we most need to demonstrate collective resolve. Why would Kim Jong-un give up his nuclear and missile capability when the United States has just demonstrated that, once he does so, it might well renege on the bargain?"
She concluded her article saying that "Exactly what comes next is unclear, but we certainly will face a far worse situation than today. When the mess materializes, Mr. Trump, per standard procedure, will blame everyone else: his political opponents, his predecessor, the Europeans and the Iranians. But there will be only one person responsible: President Trump, our wrecking ball in chief."
