Obama Aide:

Trump Foreign Policy on Iran, N. Korea, Venezuela Complete Failure

The administration of US President Donald Trump has totally failed in achieving any success on key issues, including encountering Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, Ben Rhodes, who served as deputy national security adviser for strategic communications under President Barack Obama, stated.

News ID: 445765

Date: 01 July 2019 - 22:31

RNA - Rhodes in verbal attacks on Sunday targeted Trump on Twitter, just hours after the American leader met North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.

"Photo ops don’t get rid of nuclear weapons, carefully negotiated agreements do," Rhodes said, adding that "Trump’s foreign policy is a failure - from NK to Iran to Venezuela".

Trump and Kim held summits in Singapore in June 2018 and in Hanoi in February of this year. The second and the last round of talks between the two countries failed after Trump walked away from the summit, claiming that Kim had insisted on the removal of all sanctions on North Korea in return for its denuclearization. Pyongyang rejected that account, stressing that it had only asked for a partial lifting of the bans.

Taking a victory lap for his engagement with North Korea, Trump falsely claimed that Kim had refused to meet with his predecessor. He claimed on Sunday that Obama "was begging for a meeting” with the North Korean leader, but Pyongyang ingonred it.

“They were begging for a meeting constantly, and Kim Jong Un would not meet with him,” the US president said during a press conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

According to Fars News Agancy, Rhodes stressed that "Trump is lying", noting that Obama never sought a meeting with Kim.

"Foreign policy isn’t reality television it’s reality," the political commentator announced.

Tensions around Iran have been rising since Trump torpedoed the landmark 2015 nuclear deal and re-imposed sweeping sanctions targeting large swathes of Iran’s economy. Recently, Washington raised the stakes in the standoff, sending additional military assets – including a carrier strike group, a bomber task force, and Patriot missiles – to countries bordering Iran. The latest conflict between the US and Iran started after an intruding American spy drone was shot down in Iranian sky last Thursday.

The United States has been leading a campaign to push for regime change in Venezuela, talking about ordering a military operation targeting the oil-rich South American country. Venezuela has been rocked by protests since January, when President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a second term following nationwide elections. The political situation rapidly destabilised after opposition leader Juan Guaido proclaimed himself an interim president of the country and called for ousting the democratically elected president. Washington has recognized Guaido's 'interim presidency'. An anonymous White House official announced days ago that the United States continues to support the ouster of Maduro, despite the opposition finding less and less support among the Venezuelan people.

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