President Donald Trump’s foreign policy is a dumpster fire, especially when it come to Iran. And even administration officials are getting tired of it.
It’s an understatement to say that Trump shot himself in the foot when it comes to Iran.
All of the problems surrounding Iran now stem directly from Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal that Iran had been complying with even afterwards. Trump then proceeded to enact new crippling sanctions. And now Iran has been forced to suspend parts of the deal, which means they will likely soon begin seeking a nuclear weapon again. After all, North Korea developed nuclear weapons and look how Trump treats Kim Jong Un.
Now Trump is so desperate to avoid a war that would destroy his re-election chances that he is begging Iran to negotiate with him through allies, such as France.
Of course, he could always simply rejoin the deal he withdrew from in the first place, which he only did to spite former President Barack Obama.
The problem is that Trump’s team is divided on policy, and that’s why they are sending mixed messages to our allies, which is making negotiation impossible because Iran doesn’t know if Trump wants to negotiate or go to war.
According to The Daily Beast:
The Trump administration keeps sending conflicting and contradictory messages to Iran about its terms for new negotiations, multiple U.S and European officials tell The Daily Beast. And the ensuing chaos has vexed the president, complicated diplomatic efforts for American allies abroad, and utterly baffled policymakers at home.
“Absolute amateur hour,” said one former senior administration official, who was involved with the internal squabbles.
That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement from inside the administration.
It’s not like Iran can trust the United States to keep their word now as it is, but the mixed messages and signals make it pretty clear that the trust Obama built between our two nations is all gone and Trump is incapable of starting from scratch.
It’s just like the economy. Obama built it up and Trump is taking credit without doing a thing to deserve it. But with Iran, Trump scrapped the baseline deal already in place. It would have been a good starting point to begin a new round of talks. But that has all been squandered, and even our allies are reaching their breaking point with this administration.
“Diverging opinions within the Trump administration are foiling the nascent diplomatic process, according to two current U.S. officials and another source with direct knowledge of the matter,” The Daily Beast reports. “The dissent is straining foreign intermediaries who are working as go-betweens between Washington and Tehran. They say they are fed up with receiving mixed messages from Donald Trump’s team.”
The French, in particular, are frustrated. Because even as President Emmanuel Macron tries to talk to Iran on America’s behalf after being asked to do so, Trump is undercutting that effort by claiming that Macron does not speak for the United States.
“The French are justifiably anxious about whether they are getting clear and authoritative directives from the U.S,” a former senior State Department official said. “There is no policy process for Iran. So of course the French are getting mixed messages. It’s not surprising that the administration says ‘Macron please do this’ and then to disavow that same instruction.”
Indeed, Trump would have been better off not leaving the perfectly good deal we had in place, a deal that had been working. He could have avoided this international embarrassment. Instead, he nearly has a war on his hands and no negotiations to prevent one in sight.
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