Blunt, ignorant and confused are some of the criticisms voiced by allies on U.S. policy toward Iran. But none sees the Trump administration preparing for war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Governments worldwide are alarmed at the \ntension between Washington and Tehran, concerned about the risk of \nescalation or military miscalculation and frustrated at a lack of \ncommunication about U.S. goals. What keeps the anxiety in check from \nBerlin to Moscow to Ankara is President Donald Trump\u2019s oft-stated \naversion to starting fresh wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Secretary of State Michael \nPompeo\u2019s trip to Brussels last week yielded little support for the U.S. \nposition, with Europe doubling down on its commitment to the deal that \nTrump abandoned last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pompeo also got nothing new on Iran \nfrom President Vladimir Putin during a subsequent visit to the Russian \nBlack Sea resort of Sochi, according to a senior Russian official with \nknowledge of the discussions. Distrust between Moscow and Washington is \nso great that no separate deal is possible on Iran, said another person \nclose to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve studied Trump\u2019s approach and tactics\n pretty well over the past two and a half years; he\u2019s not a military \nman, he doesn\u2019t like to fight,\u201d said Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the \nCouncil on Foreign and Defense Policy, which advises the Kremlin. \u201cHe \nlikes to make a show of strength and use economic levers. His idea is \nthat sanctions will force Tehran in the end to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In \nBerlin, officials view Trump as the main force to halt the spiral toward\n conflict, primarily due to his well-known resistance to foreign \ninterventions, said a senior lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s \ncoalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, a U.S. official said late last week that Trump\n isn\u2019t seeking conflict – though he\u2019d consider using the military if \nneeded. And the president, when asked about war with Iran, said \u2018I hope \nnot.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has spoken frequently of his desire to reduce what \nthe U.S. spends on security support for others, be it NATO or troops in \nplaces like South Korea. He\u2019s said for too long other countries have \ntaken advantage of the U.S., without boosting their own military \ncapacity. The U.S. has been a significant presence globally since World \nWar II, and is seen as a buffer against China as a rising global power. A\n particular red line for Trump appears to be boots on the ground in a \nfresh conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, the overall U.S. strategy on Iran causes \nconcern. One French government official said Trump and senior aides such\n as National Security Adviser John Bolton are wrong to think that \ntightening the screws on Iran\u2019s economy would convince its leaders to \nbend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Germany, too, has no choice but to maintain a certain level\n of cooperation with Iran, the lawmaker in Berlin said. Europe is \npressing ahead with a trade clearinghouse, known as Instex, to \ncircumvent around U.S. sanctions and is eager to settle its first \ntransaction with Iran, another official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s also a \ncomplaint from U.S. allies elsewhere. Each day brings only more \nconfusion, one Asian government official said. An official familiar with\n Turkey\u2019s thinking said the actions of those within the U.S. \nadministration do however appear coordinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUsually the \nAmericans and Trump are very clear — you could say almost brutal,\u201d said\n Jacques Maire, a former diplomat who\u2019s a member of parliament for \nPresident Emmanuel Macron\u2019s LREM party. \u201cThis time, I have to say I\u2019m \nnot always clear what is the end game, what is the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iranian\n Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif undertook his own Asian tour to seek \nrenewed commitments to deliver the economic benefits that were supposed \nto derive from the 2015 nuclear deal. He went to New Delhi, Tokyo and \nBeijing, where he won a pledge from China on Friday to support Iran\u2019s \nefforts to safeguard its interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan is worried that Iran, a\n country with which it has had good ties for decades, will be forced out\n of the nuclear deal by hawks in the Trump administration. But Tokyo \nalso has no intention of breaking away from the path set by its longtime\n ally Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIran is asking the Japanese to do anything and\n everything that they can to persuade the United States to be a little \nmore rational, but I don\u2019t know whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe can \nreally convince Trump,\u201d said Kazuo Takahashi, emeritus professor of \ninternational politics at Open University <\/p>\n\n\n\n
in Japan.Israel views \nTrump\u2019s goal as getting an improved nuclear deal that covers Iran\u2019s \nballistic-missile development and sponsorship of regional militias <\/p>\n\n\n\n
such\n as Hezbollah. That said, if Iran miscalculates and strikes U.S. bases \nor other interests, triggering retaliation, Israel wouldn\u2019t worry, the \nofficials said. They don\u2019t regard Iran as having the capability to \nstrike Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s Iran that is encouraging \u201cfalse narratives\u201d \nof war, said Firas Maksad, director of the Arabia Foundation, a \nWashington think tank that\u2019s close to the
Saudi Arabian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saudi\n Arabia and the U.A.E. have an interest in Washington and Tehran \nreaching a new understanding, he said. Trump, \u201cwhile averse to another \nMiddle Eastern war not unlike his predecessor, understands the need for a\n deal with Iran that goes beyond an arms control agreement to include \nother aspects of destabilizing behavior,\u201d he said.\u201cAll involved \nunderstand that the path to such an understanding will have to go \nthrough a difficult period of brinkmanship.\u201dMinister of State for \nForeign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir told reporters on Sunday that Saudi \nArabia does not want war with Iran \u2018in any way, but at the same time we \nwon\u2019t allow Iran to continue its hostile policies toward the kingdom.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Blunt, ignorant and confused are some of the criticisms voiced by allies on U.S. policy toward Iran. But none sees the Trump administration preparing for war. Governments worldwide are alarmed at the tension between Washington and Tehran, concerned about the risk of escalation or military miscalculation and frustrated at a lack of communication about U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61655,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61653\/revisions\/61655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}