This week I would like to focus on the New York Times article, “Trump’s Iran Policy Has Become a Disaster for the U.S. and Israel.” I believe we are seeing a direct relation to this article that was written in 2021 and the current events going on in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The article addresses the Iran Nuclear deal called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. This was between the United States, the U.K., France and China to address Iran and its nuclear programs. It was created in 2015 under the Obama administration. Under President Trump, the United Stated withdrew from the agreement in 2018. The article goes on to blame Trump for this policy decision which jeopardizes Israel and created even more of a threat out of Iran’s nuclear program.
The withdrawal of the JCPOA had multiple effects. First is the reissuing of sanctions from the United States on Iran as a way to force their hand with their nuclear program. This caused a major economic hit to the country with their oil exports and difficulty accessing the international financial system. Outside countries were forced to deal with Iran less due to the current sanctions and the uncertainty of how far the United States will go against them. Another major effect was the growth of Iran’s nuclear program. Subsequent to the United States’ withdrawal, Iran began to increase its enriched uranium stockpiles and exceed the limits of heavy water. This directly effect’s Israel’s national security. Iran has through action and policy taken stances against Israel. Now that Israel is at a full scale war, all eyes are on Iran. How much support will Iran give to Hamas and other military proxies? Will they directly engage in war with Israel? And how much of this is due to the security Iran feels, now that the United States withdrew from the JCPOA. Only time will tell if Trump’s sanctions will work better or worse than the JCPOA, but the state of the Iran nuclear program has the entire world on the edge of its seat with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
One reply on “Consalvo Week 8”
Justin,
I have read your blog post, but I am limiting my comments this week as I finish reading the class research papers. It does seem pretty clear at this point that the Trump decision to pull out of the JCPOA was poorly thought through and has led Iran to begin enriching uranium at a much higher level. And little or nothing has been accomplished in terms of Iran’s foreign behavior through the “maximum pressure” campaign that was initiated after the withdrawal. –Professor Wallerstein