RNA - Here, we are not holding our breath that President Trump will start re-imposing the NPT-illegal sanctions against Iran. But we are holding him accountable for what he said. Indeed, President Trump’s torrent of misleading statements and flat-out lies will need an army of journalists working 24/7 to set the record straight. To help those who focus, on the resistance front, Iran’s fight against terrorism and extremism in Syria and Iraq, its commitment to the nuclear deal, and other regional and military defense issues, in the following we will call out Trump whenever he distorts the facts about such matters, and we expect to update it regularly.
The quotes that follow are taken from Trump's May 8, 2018, statement about withdrawing the United States from the nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany:
Lie
President Trump announced that the US will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and is preparing to reinstate all sanctions it had waived as part of the accord.
Reality
The decision unravels the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, President Barack Obama, and isolates the United States from its European allies. The US government never lifted its sanctions even after signing the nuclear agreement. Iran has been and still is unable to get LCs from international banks and is yet to have full access to the international SWIFT banking system. American companies are barred from doing business with Iran and the ones that did, like Boeing, are not delivering any passenger plane to Iran.
Lie
Iran is the leading state sponsor of terror. It exports dangerous missiles, fuels conflicts across the Middle East, and supports terrorist proxies and militias such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Reality
As acknowledged by numerous US administration officials and former or current politicians, the CIA trained and weaponized Al-Qaeda to counter the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The Taliban has been and is still being breastfed by Saudi Arabia. The same is true about ISIL. The terrorist group was created after the illegal US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, and took large swathes of lands in the Levant with support from Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States. It was only after the intervention of Iran and Russia that the terrorist group lost all its territory. Former Vice-President Joe Biden as well as former Pentagon Intelligence Chief and National Security Advisor Gen. Micheal Flyn both took the United States' allies, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, responsible for the creation of terrorist and extremist groups like ISIL and Al-Nusra Front in the Middle-East.
Lie
No action taken by the regime has been more dangerous than its pursuit of nuclear weapons — and the means of delivering them. In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and — over time — reach the brink of a nuclear breakout.
Reality
As stated by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, “The Iran nuclear deal is not based on trust about Iran's intentions; rather it is based on tough verification, including measures that allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency unprecedented access to Iran's nuclear program.” The International Atomic Energy Agency also has confirmed that “Iran remains in compliance with its commitments under the landmark nuclear agreement.” The IAEA has already issued ten reports verifying Iran’s full compliance with the agreement.
Lie
Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie. Last week, Israel published intelligence documents — long concealed by Iran — conclusively showing the Iranian regime and its history of pursuing nuclear weapons.
Reality
A former chief of Israel's Mossad spy agency has said the documents revealed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a prime-time televised press conference last week contained no new evidence, and “the nuclear program files do not have a smoking gun.” Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the non-proliferation program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, also says, “The documents that Prime Minister Netanyahu displaced on 30 April did not reveal anything that was already known by the IAEA.”
Lie
If I allowed this deal to stand, there would soon be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Not only does the deal fail to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but it also fails to address the regime’s development of ballistic missiles that could deliver nuclear warheads.
Reality
As maintained by former US Secretary John Kerry: Trump’s claim that the agreement "sunsets," thus allowing Iran the relatively unfettered ability to proceed with a nuclear weapon, "No, it never sunsets. There's no sunset in this agreement.” Kerry’s parting words for Donald Trump are: “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but no one is entitled to their own facts.” Director General of the IAEA Yukiya Amano has likewise confirmed Iran's compliance with the JCPOA, warning that any collapse of the deal would be a great loss: "As of today, I can state that Iran is implementing its nuclear-related commitments…If the JCPOA were to fail, it would be a great loss for nuclear verification and for multilateralism."
Lie
Finally, the deal does nothing to constrain Iran’s destabilizing activities, including its support for terrorism. Since the agreement, Iran’s bloody ambitions have grown only more brazen.
Let the History Begin
In March 2003, when the Bush administration launched its invasion of Iraq, the region, though simmering as ever, looked like this: Libya was stable, ruled by a strongman; Syria was experiencing stability and tranquility under the Assad family; Iraq was not experiencing daily balsts and bloodshed; the Turks and Kurds had an uneasy but functional ceasefire; and Yemen was quiet enough, other than the attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Relations between the US and most of these nations were so warm that Washington was routinely rendering “terrorists” to their dungeons for some outsourced torture.
It’s easy enough to hustle through these unfortunate countries in the region in various states of decay before heading into the heart of the chaos: Libya is a failed state, bleeding mayhem into northern Africa; Egypt failed its Arab Uprising test and relies on the US to support its anti-democratic militarized government; and Yemen is a disastrously failed state, now the scene of a US-backed, Saudi-led war (with a thriving al-Qaeda outfit and a small but growing arm of the ISIL thrown into the bargain).
According to Fars News Agancy, in light of all this, it’s hardly surprising that no one with a sound mind in Europe or elsewhere is willing to believe Trump’s baseless accusations against Iran. What if the US hadn’t invaded Iraq in 2003? Things would undoubtedly be very different in the Middle East today. The Twitter-in-Chief can stipulate that Iran is a threat and need to be contained. In reality, the US has few clear goals in the region, but is escalating anyway. Whatever world order Trump may be fighting for in the Middle East, it seems at least an empire or two out of date.
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