Will Trump be Israel’s friend? U.S. Presidential Candidate Donald Trump (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right). Illustrative. Photo courtesy of Kobi Gideon (GPO)
Campaign rhetoric and presidential reality often don’t line up, but the likely next head of the CIA looks to keep the promise from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump about revisiting the Iran nuclear deal. Rep. Mike Pompeo, current Kansas Congressional Representative and Trump’s nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency next, tweeted last week that “I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.”
The Twitter post was made one day prior to his official acceptance of Trump’s CIA nomination, and Pompeo would have a different role as head of the CIA towards the Iran deal than while he was in Congress—which can pass laws and sanctions to undermine the deal. Nonetheless, Pompeo would be an influential voice in the Trump cabinet. This after the incoming American president expressed opposition to the deal during the campaign.
Speaking last March at the annual AIPAC policy conference, Trump said, “My number one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran,” according to a transcript of his comments posted to the AIPAC website.
However, given the international nature of the deal—which involved multiple countries and the United Nations—it’s unclear what the U.S. could do to re-do or undo the agreement.
Even Trump seemed to acknowledge the limitations in that same speech to AIPAC. After promising to “dismantle” the deal, he later implied his focus would be more on cracking down on Iran over any violations of the deal or other U.N. resolutions.
Said Trump, “At the very least, we must enforce the terms of the previous deal to hold Iran totally accountable and we will enforce it like you’ve never seen a contract enforced before, folks, believe me.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, November 20,2016)