He added that the world was made less safe by the Iran agreement as it stands, particularly at a time when the U.S. and its allies are being threatened directly by a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Just when you think Tillerson is sane, he says something like this. Let’s get this straight – two years ago, Iran was working towards building a nuclear arsenal, which Netenyahu called an “existential threat” to the existence of Israel. Remember the thermometer poster with the bomb at the top? That, according to the West, was an unacceptable situation.
Under the deal, Iran is NOT working towards building a nuclear arsenal and, on the contrary, shipped its plutonium out of the country and – according to every rational person who has studied the matter – is complying with the deal.
If Trump cancels the deal, Iran will be free to resume its work towards building a nuclear arsenal, right? And, we will then be facing the identical situation we are with North Korea. Right? Which the world agrees is entirely unacceptable, right?
So how in heaven’s name was “the world made less safe by the Iran agreement”? He’s not an idiot, so I simply don’t know where this stuff comes from.
As with many other issues (e.g., Transgender ban), Trump got out in front of his skis on this and has put himself and his administration in a box. With no actual knowledge of the subject, Trump has made a declaration of intent and, since he never makes a mistake, must now follow-through with his threat. After announcing to the world at the UN that this was the worst deal ever (excluding NAFTA I suppose) and that the US is embarrassed by the Iran nuclear treaty, I do not see that he has a way out, except to follow through and pull the US out of the deal and, presumably, reintroduce sanctions. I laughed at the idea of Trump actually reading the treaty to understand what was in it (like a pig looking at a wristwatch), but he has advisors who have read the treaty and needs to talk to them BEFORE he announces his intent to the world. Not holding my breathe on that one.
If I may correct a minor detail …
Iran shipped it’s midlevel(~20%) enriched uranium out of the country.(With US help.)
And a large proportion if its low level (~5%) enriched uranium, and agreed to limit the total stockpile of that type, which it is still enriching, per the agreement, at much lower quantities using its older centrifuges. (New centrifuges and most old ones were mothballed under IAEA monitoring.)
The reactor which would have produced plutonium, once operational, was redesigned so as to not produce Pu and the original reactor core was shipped out of the country.
The man is a menace. And perhaps a fool, though he may simply be parroting what he’s been told and what his base ignorantly believes.
Iran not having a nuclear deterrent increases the chances of Republicans launching another unprovoked region destabalizing war like they did in Iraq? /s
Ugly truth.
Trump: I will have to kill it regardless as this deal was made by The Black Guy.
If we replay the idiocy of the Bush Administration vs. North Korea and kill the nuke deal, the US, even when we get a sane gov’t, should relinquish its leadership on the world stage. The world cannot depend on us because of our political schizophrenia.
I imagine that decision will be made for us.
So we have one nuclear-armed nation trying to goad us into war, and the obvious thing to do is piss off all our remaining allies and accelerate the nuclear-weapons program of a country that knows us as “The Great Satan.”
James Watt would be proud.