Trump uses tariff threat on European allies regarding the Iran Deal

[blackribbon]

No, that opinion piece is mainly complaining that the treaty was a bad one, and that Obama is standing behind it.
For what it's worth, Trump's administration verified that Iran was abiding by the terms of the treaty. Let's just stipulate that the amount of enrichment allowed under the treaty was 'bad'.

Currently, Iran is enriching at a higher level than they were even before the treaty was negotiated and signed.

So we should have stayed in Obama's bad treaty?

 

[Ana the Ist]

A week before Germany, France and Britain formally accused Iran of breaching the 2015 nuclear deal, the Trump administration issued a private threat to the Europeans that shocked officials in all three countries.

If they refused to call out Tehran and initiate an arcane dispute mechanism in the deal, the United States would impose a 25 percent tariff on European automobiles, the Trump officials warned, according to European officials familiar with the conversations.

The U.S. effort to coerce European foreign policy through tariffs, a move one European official equated to “extortion,” represents a new level of hardball tactics with the United States’ oldest allies, underscoring the extraordinary tumult in the transatlantic relationship.

“The tariff threat is a mafia-like tactic, and it’s not how relations between allies typically work,” said Jeremy Shapiro, research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Officials in Britain, France and Germany say that they had planned to initiate the mechanism but that Trump’s threat nearly caused them to backtrack, out of concern that they could be viewed as stooges of Washington if word of the threat leaked.

“We didn’t want to look weak, so we agreed to keep the existence of the threat a secret,” a European official said.

I can't even

When Trump screwed up early into his presidency on that phone call w Taiwan....a couple of things were immediately apparent.

1. This guy doesn't understand foreign policy.
2. The people who do understand foreign policy and should be advising him are either gone or being ignored.

Nothing that's happened since then has changed my opinion on those 2 points.

 

[blackribbon]

When Trump screwed up early into his presidency on that phone call w Taiwan....a couple of things were immediately apparent.

1. This guy doesn't understand foreign policy.
2. The people who do understand foreign policy and should be advising him are either gone or being ignored.

Nothing that's happened since then has changed my opinion on those 2 points.

He took a congratulatory call from a democratically elected leader that last 10 minutes. Many people supported this action. Even if you don't, do you really think the world will collapse over a 10 minute social call? You prefer to support a dictator only?

 

[Ana the Ist]

He took a congratulatory call from a democratically elected leader that last 10 minutes.

Uh huh.

Many people supported this action.

People in Taiwan?

Even if you don't, do you really think the world will collapse over a 10 minute social call?

Did I say something about the world collapsing?

You prefer to support a dictator only?

Which dictator are we talking about?

 

[essentialsaltes]

So we should have stayed in Obama's bad treaty?

Certainly we should have stayed in the JCPOA, which belonged not to Obama, but to the several signatories. Under the treaty, while it lasted, Iran was enriching uranium to a level less than it is now, and less than it was before the treaty. This was attested to by the Trump Administration.

This is not complicated.

Before the treaty, Iran's enrichment was worse.
Under the treaty, Iran's enrichment was better.
After Trump tore up the treaty, Iran's enrichment is worse.