Published: 5/12/2018 12:01:17 AM
With the recent withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, the public must confront an uncomfortable question: Is the United States a trustworthy negotiating partner?
Discussions over whether the nuclear deal is flawed are irrelevant to the fact that the United States signed the agreement after painstaking negotiations with Iran, France, Germany, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Russia and China. Iran is upholding the deal, according to each of these negotiating partners. The International Atomic Energy Agency concurs. None of these partners agree with the United States’ rationale for withdrawing. It is a unilateral act in defiance of our international commitments.
The United States – not Iran – is reneging. Washington, not Tehran, is going back on its word.
America’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement of June 2015 represents a similar breach of faith. The U.S. signed the deal after intense negotiations, yet backed out two years later.
Such actions damage American integrity on the global stage. This point transcends valid ideological debates about the merits of such agreements.
The growing political divide between the Republican and Democratic parties is the root cause of these events. Every four to eight years, the White House changes hands between two increasingly diametrically opposed political parties. Why risk signing an agreement with the U.S. when the next presidential administration might rip it up regardless of what the global community thinks?
Even morally repugnant North Korea – considering a nuclear deal with the U.S. at the moment – should give that question careful thought. So should we.
BRANDON K. GAUTHIER
Concord