News & Comment
Trump Nuclear Deal Withdrawal Threatens Both Europe and Iran

News

According to the Guardian

The European Union is scrambling to arrange a crisis meeting with Iran after Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement, as the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said Europe had a “very limited opportunity” to save the deal.

A day after the US president broke with the landmark 2015 agreement and warned he would seek to hit European businesses that continued to trade with Tehran, the EU vowed to take steps to immunise firms from any US sanctions.

Foreign ministers aim to reassure Tehran that the nuclear deal is salvageable at a meeting currently slated for Monday in London which they are expecting their Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif to attend.

In a phone call on Wednesday between Emmanuel Macron and Rouhani, the French president stressed his willingness “to continue enforcing the Iran nuclear agreement in all respects”, the Elysée said in a statement. The statement added that Macron had “underlined the importance that Iran do the same”.

Comment

Any close observer of Middle Eastern politics is well aware that Iran has always tacitly cooperated with US policy objectives in the region. America conducted two mass brutal occupations in the early years of the present century; one in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq, and both are on Iran’s borders. Not only did America face no opposition from Iran to these illegal invasions but Iran undertook numerous actions to assist America in consolidating its position in these two countries.

However, with the revolution in Syria, America faced an unprecedented threat not only to its agent, Bashar al-Assad, but to the entire colonialist architecture in the Middle East that America had inherited from Britain. America, fearful of committing to yet another failed mass deployment of its own troops, turned again to Iran, but this time for an open deployment of its forces and not merely covert or semi-covert actions as Iran had undertaken previously. It was this pressing need that forced the Obama administration to negotiate an international normalisation of relations with Iran; the JCPOA agreement that tempted Europe with the great energy wealth of Iran.

Europe hastily abandoned its previous anti-Iranian rhetoric and rushed to benefit from the oil and gas fields of Iran. At the same time, Iran also rushed to comply with the American instructions seeing economic benefits for itself after decades of isolation, and seeing political benefits for itself in its extended regional influence.

Now, however, in the Trump administration, America views the work of Iran as complete and wants Iran to withdraw from Syria and Iraq. Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the announcement of renewed sanctions are designed to punish Iran for thinking that they could derive some benefits for themselves in Iraq and Syria and to teach the Iranian leadership to serve their master America only as an obliged duty and not for payment or reward. There is no evidence of Iran not complying with the nuclear agreement. At the same time, America began looking jealously to the considerable benefits that Europe has begun deriving from trade with Iran. Europe, like China, is energy-poor and is fully dependent on supplies from others. Iran is an energy superpower and its oil reserves are estimated at about 10% of the world’s total.

Rouhani complained to Merkel about being punished for only serving Western interests:

"Determined to achieve and maintain regional stability and security, Iran has always tried to de-escalate tensions in the region and under no condition does it welcome more tensions," Rouhani told the German leader in a phone conversation on Thursday.

And also:

"The battle that Iran and the people of Iraq and Syria fought against Daesh terrorists has brought relatively good levels of security to Syria and Iraq, and has benefitted the region and the world, including Europe," he asserted. [PressTV]

Meanwhile, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, made clear Europe’s overriding economic interests:

"I am particularly worried by the announcement of new sanctions. I will consult with all our partners in the coming hours and days to assess their implications. The European Union is determined to act in accordance with its security interests and to protect its economic investments," Mogherini said. [eeas.europa.eu]

With Allah’s permission, the world will soon see the re-established righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophet (saw) that will implement Islam and carry its light to the world, and that will evict the disbelieving foreigner from our lands and return the management of our affairs to Muslims alone.

Allah (swt) says in the Noble Qur’an about the hypocrites who assist the disbelievers:

(الَّذِينَ يَتَرَبَّصُونَ بِكُمْ فَإِن كَانَ لَكُمْ فَتْحٌ مِّنَ اللّهِ قَالُواْ أَلَمْ نَكُن مَّعَكُمْ وَإِن كَانَ لِلْكَافِرِينَ نَصِيبٌ قَالُواْ أَلَمْ نَسْتَحْوِذْ عَلَيْكُمْ وَنَمْنَعْكُم مِّنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فَاللّهُ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَلَن يَجْعَلَ اللّهُ لِلْكَافِرِينَ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ سَبِيلاً)

“Those who wait [and watch] you. Then if you gain a victory from Allah, they say, "Were we not with you?" But if the disbelievers have a success, they say [to them], "Did we not gain the advantage over you, but we protected you from the believers?" Allah will judge between [all of] you on the Day of Resurrection, and never will Allah give the disbelievers over the believers a way [to overcome them].” [Qur’an 4:141]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Faiq Najah