"Other concerns about the Iranian threat include its role as 'the world's leading supporter of terrorism,' which primarily refers to its support for Hezbollah and Hamas. Both of those movements emerged in resistance to US-backed Israeli violence and aggression, which vastly exceeds anything attributed to these villains, let alone the normal practice of the hegemonic power whose global drone assassination campaign alone dominates (and helps to foster) international terrorism."
Trump's refusal to recertify Iran's compliance with the JCPOA came one day after the US announced it would withdraw from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The United States accused UNESCO -- which promotes worldwide literacy, clean water, women's equality, cultural heritage and sex education -- of "anti-Israel bias." Israel said it would pull out of UNESCO as well.
UNESCO incurred the wrath of Israel and the United States in July when it declared the core of Hebron, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an endangered Palestinian World Heritage site. In 2011, UNESCO was the first UN agency to allow Palestine to become a member, which led to Palestine's upgraded legal status at the General Assembly the following year.
In 2015, UNESCO passed a resolution "strongly" condemning "Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims' access to their holy site." The resolution condemned the "continuous negative impact of the Israeli military confrontations" in Gaza as well.
October 12 was also the day that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which control Gaza and the West Bank respectively, announced they were forming a unity government. Netanyahu opposes Palestinian unity. Iran is the only major power in the Middle East calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.
"President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are united in a shared agenda of escalation with Iran, with the goal of enabling increased US and Israeli military aggression," Jewish Voice for Peace's Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson wrote in a statement. "Trump's hypocrisy is evident when he talks about caring about everyday Iranians, yet continually tries to ban them from entering the US."
Trump Punts to Congress
After he drove a stake through the heart of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and later, the Affordable Care Act, Trump punted those issues to Congress to clean up the messes he made. On October 13, he followed suit with JCPOA.
Trump did not urge Congress to reinstate sanctions on Iran, which would completely scuttle the JCPOA. But he placed the onus on Congress to add new terms not covered by the JCPOA, including sunset clauses and ballistic missiles.
If Congress fails to so act, Trump threatened that "the agreement will be terminated ... and our participation can be canceled by me, as president, at any time."
In order to enact Trump's requested legislation, GOP senators would have to muster 60 votes, including eight Democrats, which is unlikely.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who spearheaded US diplomacy with Iran, called Trump's decision "a reckless abandonment of facts in favor of ego and ideology from a president who would rather play a high-stakes game of chicken with Congress and with Iran than admit that the nuclear agreement is working."
"Breaking the Iran agreement would not only free Iran from limits placed on its nuclear program," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said, "it would irreparably harm America's ability to negotiate future nonproliferation agreements. Why would any country in the world sign such an agreement with the United States if they knew that a reckless president might simply discard that agreement a few years later?"
This is particularly disturbing in light of the volatile standoff between the United States and nuclear-armed North Korea.
Iran's compliance with the JCPOA has made the world a safer place. We must apply pressure on both Congress and the White House to retain the Iran deal.
Original published in Truthout(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
