George Graham

Making Iran Deadly Again

 

It would be sheer sabotage to blow up the Iran nuclear agreement. And that’s what Trump seems about to do. Egged on by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Trumplike prime minister, the US president is making bellicose noises about tearing up the hard won pact that Obama achieved.

Netanyahu has his own reasons for wanting a war with his neighbors. Surrounded by overtly hostile Arab states, Israelis must feel like Damocles with the sword of extinction hanging over their heads. But I don’t see why Americans should risk blowing up the world to make them feel better.

The Jews and Arabs have an age-old vendetta going on. And for reasons I don’t quite grasp, the Persians in Iran are identified with Israel’s Arab enemies.

Mideast politics evades comprehension. My comprehension anyway.

How did Israel get on the same side as Saudi Arabia in opposing Iran, for example? The Saudis are indelibly Arab.

Yet there’s Netanyahu on TV pulling out some old charts, graphs and photos from yesteryear to make a case for scrapping the nuclear agreement (photo).

Surely, nobody thinks the Iranians will simply cower in fear if the pact is abandoned?

If the Iranians really are sneakily developing nuclear weaponry – as Trump and Netanyahu insist – don’t you think they will get on with their dirty work even more effectively once the pact’s restraining provisions are lifted?

So what does Netanyahu want Trump to do next? Bomb Iran?

Remember how he helped sucker George W. Bush into invading Iraq? And who in their right mind would want to do that kind of thing again?

Iran is not Sadam’s Iraq. It’s not even North Korea. It’s bigger and badder. War with the Iranians would be no picnic. Who knows? If Netanyahu’s charts and graphs are right, they might already have the Bomb.

Then there’s the Russian connection. Russia has come to Iran’s aid before and is likely to do so again. I understand the two countries have a formal military alliance.

If what Trump and Netanyahu are saying is true, the sensible approach would be to try and ensure that the restrains built into the Obama agreement are more strictly applied. Doing away with the pact’s restraining provisions would be counterproductive.

And very, very dangerous.

Trump’s position on Iran

What cooler heads are saying

The case for common sense

An unlikely alliance?

The Russian factor

Iran’s Persian roots

About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com