WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — With tensions soaring after he ordered the killing of a top Iranian general, US President Donald Trump publicly urged all other powers to abandon a 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran.
Within hours, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, one of Trump’s closest international allies, was on the phone with Iran’s president. His message? That, according to Downing Street, the nuclear deal remains “the best arrangement currently available.”
The Jan 3 drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful general and a longtime US nemesis, has only exacerbated tensions between the United States and Europe in a showdown that has turned into a crisis.
But the episode could paradoxically offer a new chance for the Europeans to attempt what they have sought for three years — to broker peace between Iran and Trump.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a startlingly frank statement about allies for the top US diplomat, told Fox News after Soleimani’s killing that Europeans “haven’t been as helpful as I wish that they could be.”
Trump and Pompeo were infuriated by pro-Iranian Iraqi militias’ vandalism of the US embassy in Baghdad and rocket fire on bases housing US troops. They said Soleimani was planning imminent attacks on Americans — a finding disputed by Democratic lawmakers after a classified briefing.
Tensions have steadily mounted since Trump in May 2018 withdrew from the denuclearization accord brokered by his predecessor Barack Obama and instead launched a sweeping campaign to cripple Iran, including seeking to bar all its oil exports.
Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of NATO, using the Western alliance’s 70th anniversary last month to press for greater funding by Europeans whom he has cast as freeloaders.
France and Germany have also tried to engage Iran as has close US ally Japan, which welcomed President Hassan Rouhani for a visit days before the US strike on Soleimani.
Iran has described its reprisal, which did not kill any Americans, as proportional, and Trump viewed it as a sign of de-escalation.
In a rare statement for an administration fiercely opposed to Iran, Trump also acknowledged the Shiite clerical regime’s role in fighting the Daesh group — a campaign that Europeans consider the top priority in the Middle East. — NNN-AGENCIES