Will Trump’s Withdrawal from Iran Deal Make the U.S. a ‘Pariah State’?
“It calls into severe question America’s credibility around the world in adhering to any deal beyond one presidential administration.”
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
The multi-nation agreement was designed to prevent Iran from pursuing nuclear armament in exchange for the elimination of sanctions against the country.
The Iran deal was the result of a long negotiation process during the second term of President Barack Obama.
For his part, Obama issued a statement after Trump’s announcement and condemned the move in stark terms, calling it “misguided” and “a serious mistake.” Those are uncommon words for a former president to use regarding the policy decisions of a sitting president. But Obama and his secretary of state John Kerry believed the Iran deal was the best way forward for the United States and for the world — imperfect, but a path forward to denuclearize Iran for a decade.
Trump said the agreement’s 10-year life span was part of its inherent flaws, and that the United States will be safer pulling out of the agreement. Trump has explained how leaving the deal would make the U.S. safer.
In fact, many experts say exiting the Iran deal only creates instability in an already fragile region, and hobbles the ability of the United States to negotiate agreements with other nations in the future.
“We are an unreliable partner, we are perhaps a feckless partner,” Oakland University professor of political science Peter Trumbore tells Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson.
Wayne State University senior lecturer of Near and Middle East history and politics Saeed Khan agrees.
“There’s no wisdom in this,” says Khan. “It…calls into severe question America’s credibility around the world in adhering to any deal beyond one presidential administration.”
Khan says the move could even “aptly designate America around the world as a pariah state.”
Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.
