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Why is Trump Putting the Screws to Iran?

May 22, 2018


The new U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu


President Donald Trump with Benjamin Netanyahu 

If you ask most of the governments and most of the leaders in the Middle East what is the principle barrier to peace, what is the greatest threat to security, they would say three things: Iran, Iran and Iran.
- Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, May 21, 2018

We are witnessing today a new phenomenon: the capricious assertiveness of the American administration. Looking at the latest decisions of President Trump some could even think, ‘With friends like that, who needs enemies?’
- Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, May 16, 2018

One week after President Donald Trump withdrew from the multi-lateral nuclear deal with Iran, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk described the U.S. administration as "capricious".

Capricious is defined as "changing according to no discernible rules; unpredictable." However, when it comes to how the Trump administration deals with Iran there is nothing unpredictable about it.  In dealing with Iran, Donald Trump is simply acting according to the well-known dictates and demands coming from Israel's right-wing leader, Benjamin Netanyahu.

THE WAR AGENDA MEMO OF 2001

Ten years ago, General Wesley Clark revealed the Zionist Neo-Con plan to "take out" Iran and six other Middle Eastern nations that was contained in a Pentagon memo that circulated at the highest level of the Defense Department shortly after 9/11:  "This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran," Clark said.

Now, having taken on the first six nations, it seems that Trump has decided to ignore the pleas of the Europeans and to put the screws to Iran to satisfy Netanyahu. The European Union, however, is one of Iran's largest trading partners and is unwilling to trash the nuclear deal that allows European companies to trade with the large and wealthy nation.

On May 21, Trump's new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened Iran with the "strongest sanctions in history" if it did not comply with 12 demands he listed in a speech given at the Heritage Foundation, "After the Deal:  The New Iran Strategy."

Pompeo said the United States would only lift its sanctions on Iran if Tehran submitted to the new demands, which seems highly unlikely given the extreme nature of the demands.

REGIME CHANGE BY FINANCIAL PRESSURE

"We will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime," Pompeo said.

"This sting of sanctions will be painful if the regime does not change its course from the unacceptable and unproductive path it has chosen to one that rejoins the league of nations. These will indeed end up being the strongest sanctions in history when we are complete. The regime has been fighting all over the Middle East for years. After our sanctions come in force, it will be battling to keep its economy alive. Iran will be forced to make a choice: either fight to keep its economy off life support at home or keep squandering precious wealth on fights abroad. It will not have the resources to do both," Pompeo said.

Donald Trump recently complained that the U.S. had wasted $7 trillion in 17 years of waging war in the Middle East and gotten nothing for it. Yesterday, his new Secretary of State focused his criticism on Iran for wasting its wealth. Pompeo said the U.S. will "advocate tirelessly for the Iranian people. The regime must improve how it treats its citizens. It must protect the human rights of every Iranian. It must cease wasting Iran’s wealth abroad."

On May 10, the Washington Free Beacon reported:  "The Trump administration is examining a new plan to help Iranians fighting the hardline regime in Iran following America's exit from the landmark nuclear deal and re-imposition of harsh economic sanctions that could topple a regime already beset by protests and a crashing economy."

A "three-page white paper being circulated among National Security Council officials in the White House," which the Free Beacon has a copy of, "offers a strategy by which the Trump administration can actively work to assist an already aggravated Iranian public topple the hardline ruling regime through a democratization strategy that focuses on driving a deeper wedge between the Iranian people and the ruling regime."

So the "New Iran Strategy" sounds a lot like the old Syria strategy, which the U.S. has applied with disastrous results since 2012. In 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote an email entitled "New Iran and Syria 2.doc": 

The best way to help Israel deal with Iran's growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad… Bringing down Assad would not only be a massive boon to Israel's security, it would also ease Israel's understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly.

During previous periods of sanctions and embargoes against Iran it was, in fact, Israelis and their agents like Marc Rich who profited by secretly trading with Iran. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Marc Rich bought oil from Iran despite the American embargo. Due to his special relationship with Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran became Rich's most important supplier of crude oil for more than 15 years, selling Iranian oil to Israel through a secret pipeline.

There is clearly no U.S. or European interest in waging economic war against a nation of 80 million people with a new regime of extremely oppressive sanctions.  This policy is meant to foment civil strife in Iran with the intent of overthrowing the government.  Trump's "New Iran Strategy" is certainly not being implemented for the benefit of the Iranian people, but solely to advance Israel's strategic plan to dominate the Middle East.

Sources:

"After the Deal: A New Iran Strategy," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC, May 21, 2018

"White House Examining Plan to Help Iranian People Oppose Regime," FreeBecon.com, Adam Kredo, May 10, 2018

"New Iran and Syria 2.doc," Hillary Clinton email, 2012