Risking JCPOA endangers world mechanisms: US anti-war activist

'On 12 May, President Trump will decide whether or not to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. If the US pulls out, as Trump has threatened to do, we could be careening down the path of another catastrophic, senseless war in the Middle East. That’s why the countervailing forces of European leaders, the UN, the US Congress and the American public are so pivotal,' wrote Medea Benjamin.

Benjamin wrote, 'The US already made a catastrophic blunder in Iran, a blunder that is still reverberating six decades later. In a foreign policy speech delivered in September 2017, Senator Bernie Sanders talked about the 1953 CIA coup that toppled Iran’s elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, on behalf of western oil interests, and the reinstallation of the corrupt, brutal and unpopular Shah.'

'Today, both the Saudis and Israelis are trying to suck the US into their decades-old feud with Iran. They have both opposed the Iran nuclear deal. Israel has been advocating for the US military to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, even though Israel has several hundred nuclear weapons of its own and Iran has none.'

'Saudi Arabia insists that Iran is spreading terrorism throughout the region,' stating the fact that it is the Saudis who 'have spent billions of dollars spreading their intolerant version of Islam, Wahhabism, around the world.'

It is the Saudi’s extremist ideology of Wahhabiism, not Shiism, that 'forms the theological underpinnings of radical terrorist groups from al-Qaeda to ISIS.'

She wrote that upending the nuclear agreement will weaken the moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani and strengthen the anti-US discourse in Iran.

The article also said that if the US quits the deal and a war breaks out, it will not only put US troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East in danger, but it will reach Israel.

'If the US breaks with the nuclear deal, Iran would be free to reconstitute its nuclear program and quickly move ahead. It could install more centrifuges and produce as much enriched uranium or plutonium as it wants. If US officials are troubled by Iran’s foreign policy now, imagine how much more powerful a nuclear-armed Iran would be.'

That’s why Trump’s Secretary of Defense James Mattis has said that keeping the nuclear agreement intact is in the US national interest.

'It is also why the other signatories to the agreement – France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China – want to keep it. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, just visited Washington DC, trying to convince Trump not to pull out, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, met with Trump on Friday with the same message.'

The nuclear agreement was not only made between six nations, but by the entire UN system. The UN Security Council approved the deal by a 15-0 vote. Putting the deal in jeopardy would compromise the entire international framework for nonviolent conflict resolution and sink international respect for US leadership to a new low.'

Referring to the momentous talks with North Korea tentatively scheduled for May, Benjamin wrote, 'Why would Kim Jong-un sign an agreement with Trump if he goes back on a deal already signed with Iran, a deal that Iran was complying with, a deal that was approved by the entire international community?'

The anti-war activist suggested, 'The Trump administration should not only honor the agreement, it should use it as a springboard to work with Iran to defuse the conflicts consuming the region and to normalize relations with Tehran.'

Unfortunately, the triumvirate of President Trump, US National Security Adviser John Bolton, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 'are likely to pull in the opposite direction.'

She also urged the world community – including the UN, Congress and the public – to try to stop 'the Trump wrecking crew' from destroying 'the best global foreign policy achievement in the last decade.'

Medea Benjamin is an American political activist, the cofounder of the peace group Code Pink.

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