When reading president Trump’s new strategy on Iran and his respective remarks one cannot help: déjà vu. The above statement has been uttered 15 years ago by Trump’s predecessor, George W. Bush, when addressing the American people in his first State of the Union speech of 29 January 2002. Putting Iran, together with Iraq and North Korea, on his Axis of Evil was the prelude for the invasion of Iraq and immediately urged the two other regimes to accelerate their nuclear programs. A hardliner, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was elected in 2005 in Iran as president and stayed after 2009. Iraq was destroyed in 2003 and afterwards while it took 13 years for the members of the UN Security Council and Germany, ultimately under the leadership of president Barack Obama, to convince Iran that it would be better to abstain.

The so-called Iran nuclear deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) is an extremely rare example for successful international diplomacy, something which should have been awarded with the Nobel Peace Price. I am quite sure that the respective Committee in Oslo already regrets its decision last week when a rather unknown group of activists, Ican, was awarded instead.

Trump’s speech yesterday and his “new strategy” can even be interpreted, by Iran, as brazen declaration of war, without even a Gulf of Tonkin incident. North Korea in fact regarded Trump’s address to the UN General Assembly on 19 September and the following tweet as declaration of war (“Rocket man is on a suicide mission;” and “Little Rocket Man, […] won’t be around much longer!”). That regime actually fires missiles and ignites nukes for self-protection.

One may ask, what does Trump expect Iran to do now, perhaps surrender? Or the other permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany? Submit and hail him?

14 October 2017 @ 5:15 pm.

Last modified October 14, 2017.