OPINION:
Iran has called on the countries of the world — the ones that care, anyway — to stand up to that big ol’ bad bully Donald Trump and join forces to save the nuclear deal from the trash heap of U.S. history.
Good. Now America can see clearly who’s friend, who’s enemy and who wants to play pussyfoot with a rogue, despotic nation over a principled, free America.
Knowing thy enemy from friend is half the diplomatic battle. Let’s get it on out there, see where everybody stands, make everybody pick a side.
“The [nuclear deal],” said Tehran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, in a letter to his counterparts, Reuters reported, “does not belong to its signatories, so one party can reject it based on domestic policies or political differences with a former ruling administration.”
He went on to say that America’s “illegal withdrawal” from the nuclear pact — a deal that was formed on the heels of “meticulous, sensitive and balanced multilateral talks” — was a sign of this White House’s “bullying methods to bring other governments in line.”
And that’s just wrong, he said — even though it’s exactly what Iran’s doing.
Look at this line, from Reuters: “Iran’s top lead Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has set out a series of conditions for European powers if they want Tehran to stay in the nuclear deal, including steps to safeguard trade with Tehran and guarantee Iranian oil sales.”
Hmm. So in the mind of Iran, it’s OK for Iran to dictate stipulations to foreign powers, but it’s not OK for President Trump to pull from the agreement and advocate for other nations to do similarly?
That’s called hypocrisy. And it’s deceitful. But then again — this is Iran and those who didn’t want America to join this agreement warned from the get-go about doing deals with a deceitful Iran.
But there’s another wait-a-minute moment right there: Fact is, America didn’t join this agreement. Barack Obama did. And that means the deal was only as good as the next president’s commitment to uphold it.
Obama should’ve gone to the Senate for approval on this. But he didn’t. He went the unilateral route. And that’s why Iran’s complaint of America’s “illegal withdrawal” from this “meticulous[ly]” formed and “balanced” deal is bunk — a lie in itself.
There was no America-made deal here. There was an Obama deal with the mullahs. And that’s hardly representative of America or America’s interests. That Iran is now pressing the other nations of the world to pick a side only helps with America’s diplomatic dealings going forward. We now will have a clearer drawn line in the sand that separates and shows friend versus foe on this matter.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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