Global geopolitical Series: EU to struggle to save JCPOA as Trump threatens harshest sanctions on Iran

The European Union along with its two present members (Germany and France) and a former member (United Kingdom) have several times over the past year reiterated their support for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the Iran nuclear agreement. Not only EU but all the concerned parties (+ Russia and China) have expressed willingness to continue with the agreement even though the U.S. President Trump announced earlier in the week that he is pulling the United States out of the agreement.

However, in reality, the European Union and the other concerned members to the JCPOA would struggle to keep the deal alive as the U.S. President Donald Trump signaled that his administration would impose harshest sanctions on Iran to prevent the country from securing an access to the nuclear weapon, “As we exit the Iran deal, we will be working with our allies to find a real, comprehensive, and lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear threat. This will include efforts to eliminate the threat of Iran’s ballistic-missile program, to stop its terrorist activities worldwide, and to block its menacing activity across the Middle East. In the meantime, powerful sanctions will go into full effect. If the regime continues its nuclear aspirations, it will have bigger problems than it has ever had before.”

Despite these comments from President Trump, while he signaled the U.S. exit from the deal, the EU and the others have thrown their weight behind the deal. However, after hearing President Trump more clearly at a cabinet meeting following the decision, one can do nothing but doubt the ability of the other parties to bypass the U.S. sanctions that are going to be imposed given the overreach of the U.S. financial powers in the world. Speaking at the cabinet meeting President Trump said, “You look at the deal we had with Iran and it was a one-sided deal that ultimately was going to lead to nuclear proliferation all over the Middle East and they were talking about it. Other countries were talking about it. It was going to lead to that. They were all very happy at what I did. That was a one-sided deal that we spent a $150 billion and $1.8 billion in cash on getting done and it was not good and it was not appropriate. We will see how we do with Iran. Probably we will not do very well with them but that’s ok too. They have got to understand life. Because I don’t think they do understand life. If you look at what is happening in the Middle East with Syria, with Yemen, with all other places they are involved, its bedlam and death and we can’t allow that to happen. So, we have terminated a terrible terrible deal that should have never ever been made. We will be putting on among the strongest sanctions that we have ever put on a country and they are going into effect very shortly…….we can’t allow a deal to hurt the world. That’s a deal to hurt the world. That’s not a deal for the United States, that’s a deal to hurt the world.”

It is clear from these words that President Trump aspires not only to save the United States from what he calls a terrible deal but the world, which basically means that the deal would be dead despite European efforts as he will be on a quest to save the world with strongest possible sanctions on Iran.