Did Trump's arbitrary decision cause the Saudi oil refinery attack?

You must learn not to use Trump or the White House website as your primary source of information. It makes you look foolish.

"Iran has long been secretly 'enriching,' in total violation of the terrible 150 Billion Dollar deal made by John Kerry and the Obama Administration," Trump tweeted. "Remember, that deal was to expire in a short number of years."

All three parts of this tweet are wrong. International nuclear monitors and Trump's own intelligence officials say Iran complied until recently with the agreement's limits on its enrichment activities. Trump exaggerated the amount of money Iran gained access to because of the agreement. And he mischaracterized the deal by saying the whole thing would soon "expire." https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/11/politics/fact-check-trump-wrong-iran-enrichment/index.html

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 was a resolution endorsing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the nuclear program of Iran. It sets out an inspection process and schedule while also preparing for the removal of United Nations sanctions against Iran. The 15 nations on the Security Council unanimously endorsed the resolution, which had been negotiated by the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—plus Germany, the European Union, and Iran. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2231

This was Iran's money, and the negotiators used the money as a bargaining chip. The agreement gave Iran back its own money.

That is ludicrous. Did you get that from the Donald J. Trump website?

You are making yourself look foolish.

This was a nuclear agreement. If Iran agreed to certain limitations on uranium processing, she could resume business as usual for a sovereign nation.

As a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has pledged not to develop nuclear weapons — ever. In agreeing to the JCPOA, Iran recommitted itself to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The NPT is of indefinite duration and serves as the underpinning for the entire global nonproliferation regime.

Iran also has agreed to abide by the International Atomic Energy Agency's Additional Protocol. It has committed to ratify this agreement in 2023. The IAEA already has the ability to investigate nuclear facilities and activities disclosed by Iran's government. The Additional Protocol supplements those powers by giving IAEA investigators the "ability to investigate undeclared nuclear facilities and activities by increasing the IAEA's authority to inspect certain nuclear-related facilities and demand information from member states," according to a 2017 report by the Congressional Research Service. Simply put, Iran had agreed to give international inspectors wide-ranging authority to peer into its nuclear activities.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-fact-check-trump-iran-deal-20180508-story.html

 

I hate to tell you this, but you are about as qualified to judge the decisions of the President as you are to attempt brain surgery. Your knowledge of this subject is based on whatever you are told by a media who's job it is to brainwash you for the benefit of multinational corporations. The President, no matter who is in office is 100% reliant on the information provided by his intelligence community. You do not know what that information is, you do not even have a clue. All you know is what some talking head on TV tells you.
Now I do not agree with attacking Iran in any way, but at least I am smart enough to know this is not Trumps decision. The agenda in the middle east was set 20 years ago. General Westley Clark told us back then "we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” Now the time table was a little off, I am assuming because the task became much more difficult than the planners thought, but the agenda has not changed or been abandoned.
To blame what is happening on one President when every President for the past 20 years has fully cooperated with this agenda is intellectually dishonest to say the least.

 

Why dont you explain why it was the greatedt thing since sliced bread ! Tell uus about clintons great deal with north korea also ! Remember they werent gonna have nukes .

 

No, you don't.

What did I get wrong in my post?

 

This forum has some serious computer glitches, this is the second time my response has ended up on the wrong post.

 

The UN is not the US government. Failure #1.

No, the money belonged to the government that was overthrown by Islamic terrorists in the 1970's. It did not belong to the people who executed the coup, who are now the government of Iran. Failure #2

No, I got it from my sources, here:

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-iran-nuclear-20170830-story.html

Which put military sites off limits

and here

https://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/revisiting-parchin

Which outlines the IAEA's problems with Parchin.

Failure #3.

Then failure #4, where you still fail to read anything that shows the JCPOA ended in 2035. Failure # 4.

I'm not the one looking foolish.

 

It is called human error.

 

Now you are believing Iran over the IAEA and U.N.? Trump agreed with Iran, too. It doesn't matter what Iran says. It matters what the IAEA says. Much of what Iranian leaders say is meant for home consumption, not to be believed on the international front.

Parchin was a problem, but it didn't affect the overall effectiveness of the agreement.

After her talks with officials of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Haley said: “There are... numerous undeclared sites that have not been inspected. That is a problem.” Iran dismissed her demands as “merely a dream”.

The IAEA has the authority to request access to facilities in Iran, including military ones, if there are new and credible indications of banned nuclear activities there, according to officials from the agency and signatories to the deal.

But they said Washington has not provided such indications to back up its pressure on the IAEA to make such a request.

“We’re not going to visit a military site like Parchin just to send a political signal,” an IAEA official said, mentioning a military site often cited by opponents of the deal including Iran’s arch-adversary Israel and many U.S. Republicans. The deal was struck under Trump’s Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-inspections-idUSKCN1BB1JC

Link?

You are trying to obscure the main points of this thread.

A. The agreement was working.

B. Trump's own intelligence officials say Iran complied with the agreement's limits on its enrichment activities.

C. As a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has pledged not to develop nuclear weapons — ever. In agreeing to the JCPOA, Iran recommitted itself to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The NPT is of indefinite duration and serves as the underpinning for the entire global nonproliferation regime. You have not disputed that fact.

D. Trump's removal of the U.S. has caused Iran to follow suit. She has now exceeded the amount and the level of processed uranium. She has seized and mined ships in the Strait of Hormuz. She shot down a sophisticated American aircraft. She destroyed the world's largest oil refinery.

E. All because of Trump's rash decision in May 2018. You have not disputed that. You are trying obscure that fact.

 

Trump's activities are so extreme they are driving a potential war with Iran to the back pages.

I predicted yesterday on another thread, "If Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire doesn't come clean next week in his Congressional hearings, what Trump did will be all over the front pages by next Friday," referring to the whistleblower complaint.

I was right and I was wrong with that prediction.

I was right in the sense that the media would quickly get its hands on the story.

I was wrong in the sense that it is happening right now, not a week from now. I should have known. The Wall Street Journal broke the story, as did the Washington Post.

The Post writes, "The big, unanswered questions here are essentially: Did Trump make some kind of promise to a foreign government (apparently Ukraine) that would involve using official government resources ($250 million in military aid) for personal gain. And if he didn’t make a promise, how persistent were his efforts to gain foreign assistance?

"Thanks to reporting from The Washington Post’s national security team this week, though, we now know that this whistleblower’s complaint involves Trump and alleges that he made some kind of a “promise” to a foreign leader. We then learned that the complaint involves Ukraine. By Friday afternoon, we learned Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July 25 call to launch an investigation involving the Bidens. (The Wall Street Journal first reported that and said Trump pressed Zelensky on the matter about eight times)."

Politico reported in an August 28 article, "The Trump administration is slow-walking $250 million in military assistance to Ukraine, annoying lawmakers and advocates who argue the funding is critical to keeping Russia at bay."

Trump maintains his innocence, of course. First, he says, “It doesn’t matter what I discussed,” when it matters a great deal what was discussed. Then he said his phone call with President Zelensky had been “a beautiful conversation."

All of which begs a question. If Trump is innocent, why is he hiding?

Acting Director of National Intelligence Maguire has refused to share the whistleblower complaint with Congress as required by law, and the White House Office of Legal Counsel has been involved in efforts to keep it from Congress.

Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, insisted to CNN’s Chris Cuomo that he didn’t ask Ukrainian officials to investigate Biden — but then, less than 30 seconds later, did a complete about-face and admitted that “of course” he did just that.

This President is really something. His supporters are stunned. Between the two major issues, they have no idea what to say.

 

The US announced Friday it would send additional troops to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in response to the attack on Saudi oil facilities, which the US has blamed on Tehran.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the troops would be "defensive in nature and primarily focused on air and missile defense" following the attacks on Saudi oil facilities attacks which Esper said "all indications are that Iran was responsible for."

"Right now we're focused on helping the Saudis improve their defense infrastructure," Esper said.

Trump announced that he had applied new sanctions on two pillars of the Iranian economy, the country's central bank and its sovereign wealth fund. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement about the new sanctions, which targeted the Central Bank for providing "billions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, its Qods Force and its terrorist proxy, Hizballah."

What does targeted mean? What will the sanctions actually do? Mnuchin doesn't say, and, of course, Trump has no clue.

The US has already targeted Iran's central bank, using Congressional authorities, for a variety of issues, including money laundering and missile activity. Friday's sanctions designated the Central Bank for terrorism, making them much harder for a future administration to lift. The bank would have to show it had stopped funding for Hezbollah or other terrorist groups.

Whatever.

 

One diplomat from the region believes the US has not responded forcefully to the Saudi oil field attack.

"There is literally nothing else to sanction," the diplomat said.

The biggest economic targets in banking and other industries have already been hit and the move against the central bank wouldn't have a strong economic impact.

"There is no end to the sanctions designations that the US could roll out," said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a former Treasury official.

Rosenberg said the central bank sanctions wouldn't "meaningfully change the economic effect of the sanctions already in place, but it says to Iran and to the world that we are still going to exercise our economic muscle."

In other words, the response from the Trump administration is a big fat nothing. That is not unexpected. Trump is busy right now with the other disaster he has created, the intell whistleblower.

What a President. Even his supporters have given up on him.

 

What a mess Trump created when he removed the U.S. from the JCPOA.

Iran has committed acts of aggression, including the destruction of the world's largest oil refinery, shooting down a sophisticated American aircraft, the seizure of ships, several violations of the JCPOA, and the Trump administration is powerless to do anything.

The Pentagon is going on the defensive and Trump imposes useless sanctions. which is mere window dressing to show his base he is doing something.

What are Trump supporters saying? Nothing. What can they say? Trump really screwed up and they know it.

 

Nothing further from the White House. Considering the extremely weak response, Trump is probably hoping all this will just go away. After all, he is responsible for the whole mess and he knows it.