The End Of " Trust " !

In 2015 what really amounted to the major portion of the world signed off on a nuclear deal with Iran that will prevent that country moving to acquire nuclear weapons in the immediate future.   The deal limits the use of the means of enriching uranium to weapons grade and allows inspectors to regularly check that Iran is in compliance with the treaty.

The signatories to this deal were known as the " P5+1 "  which included the United States of America, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,  Russia,  France, China - and that " +1 " referred to Germany.   The president of the United States at that time was Barak Obama.

When Donald Trump sought the presidency he promised to withdraw from the deal because Iran was continuing to develop ICBM's and finance terrorist movements in the Middle East, and that is despite UN inspectors and the other signatory countries certifying that Iran is in compliance with the terms of the deal.

Donald Trump has now made good on that promise.  In fact, he has reimposed the sanctions that Barak Obama withdrew and their reimposition means that unless the other countries comply with these new obligations their access to US markets will be compromised.  It is possible that Iran will now speed up the acquisition of nuclear weapons, which was the aim of that treaty to prevent.

This breaks a precedent that held that a treaty was an agreement between nations, not between individuals.  Donald Trump's view of politics is so completely Republican that he delights in undoing anything his Democrat predecessor, Barak Obama put in place. He rallies his supporters with the claim Obama made a bad deal which he has taken steps to rectify.

All this comes at a time when negotiations are under way with North Korea to have that country relinquish its existing stocks of nuclear bombs - which will require a compliance treaty.   How can any country trust the United States to stick with treaty terms when Trump is simply changing his mind and backing away from treaty obligations in which his country has signed in good faith ?

Can we now believe that treaties are valid only as long as the man holding that office remains in power, and if so international diplomacy has become a thing of the past.  That treaty with Iran had the compliance of the United Nations and consequently the assent of the various nations that are combined under the United Nations umbrella.   It was virtually a treaty signed with a significant part of the rest of the world.

Trump has set international diplomacy a fatal blow.   The protocol of the past that incoming regimes honour the obligations entered into by the outgoing presidency is now null and void.   It opens the door for whoever follows Trump into office to totally disregard his achievements on the basis that integrity only lasts until the man in power at the time - hangs up his hat !