Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 190
Trump Is Everywhere
“President Biden said the U.S. will only lift sanctions on Iran if it stops enriching uranium and wouldn’t use sanctions relief as a way to lure Tehran back to the negotiating table over the 2015 nuclear accord,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Sunday for the U.S. to lift its sanctions as a prerequisite for returning to the 2015 nuclear deal.”
“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was a driving force behind President Trump’s decision to kill a top Iranian general, a high-stakes move that demonstrates Pompeo’s status as the most influential national security official in the Trump administration,” CNN reports.
“According to multiple sources close to Pompeo, the secretary of state has believed throughout his career that Iran is at the root of all the Middle East’s problems and has focused on Soleimani, Iran’s ‘shadow commander,’ as the mastermind behind the country’s state sponsored terrorism throughout the region.”
“The Iranian missile strike on U.S. bases in Iraq on Tuesday was a calibrated event intended to cause minimal American casualties, give the Iranians a face-saving measure and provide an opportunity for both sides to step back from the brink of war,” the Washington Post reports.
“The early warning came from intelligence sources as well as communications from Iraq, which conveyed Iran’s intentions to launch the strike.”
Less than a third of registered voters are able to correctly point to Iran on an unlabeled world map, according to a Morning Consult survey.
Jonathan Chait: “One salient fact is that it’s not 2001, or even 2003. A poll earlier this summer found that just 18% of Americans prefer to ‘take military action against Iran’ as against 78% wanting to ‘rely mainly on economic and diplomatic efforts.'”
“It is in part due to public war weariness that Republicans have sworn repeatedly, for years, that they would not go to war with Iran. The possibility of such a military escalation was precisely the central dispute between the parties when the Obama administration struck its nuclear deal.”
Former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell told CBS News there would be “dead civilian Americans” as a result of the killing of Qassem Suleimani.
Said Morell: “Suleimani was an evil genius, he had a lot of American blood on his hands. The world is a better place without him. The problem is that comes at a very high cost.”
He continued: “Number one, there will be dead Americans, dead civilian Americans, as a result of this. Possibly over the next few days in any place where Iran has its proxies. Iraq is the most likely place, but also Lebanon, Bahrain, other places in the Middle East.”
“I don’t want to comment on that. But the answer is no. But I don’t want to comment on that.”
— President Trump, quoted by CNN, when asked if he supports the protesters in Iran.
“Iran is experiencing its deadliest political unrest since the Islamic Revolution 40 years ago, with at least 180 people killed — and possibly hundreds more — as angry protests have been smothered in a government crackdown of unbridled force,” the New York Times reports.
“It began two weeks ago with an abrupt increase of at least 50 percent in gasoline prices. Within 72 hours, outraged demonstrators in cities large and small were calling for an end to the Islamic Republic’s government and the downfall of its leaders.”
“Iranian hackers targeted President Trump’s re-election campaign, in a sign of how cyberattacks could become a fixture of the 2020 presidential election,” the New York Times reports.
“It was not clear what information was taken in the attack on the Trump campaign.”
“By the time President Trump met with congressional leaders on the afternoon of June 20, he had already decided to retaliate against Iran for shooting down an American surveillance drone,” the New York Times reports.
“But barely three hours later, Mr. Trump had changed his mind. Without consulting his vice president, secretary of state or national security adviser, he reversed himself and, with ships readying missiles and airplanes already in the skies, told the Pentagon to call off the airstrikes with only 10 minutes to go. When Vice President Mike Pence and other officials returned to the White House for what they expected would be a long night of monitoring a military operation, they were stunned to learn the attack was off.”
“That about-face, so typically impulsive, instinctive and removed from any process, proved a decision point for a president who has often threatened to ‘totally destroy’ enemies but at the same time has promised to extricate the United States from Middle East wars.”
President trump on Twitter: “I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!”
Washington Post: “The comment comes after Iranian news agencies reported that Iran warned the United States that it would broadly retaliate against any attacks in the wake of crippling strikes on the Saudi oil industry over the weekend.”
Washington Post: “Trump’s dual approach on Iran is premised on the idea that by walking out of the 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran and replacing the pact’s concessions with new sanctions, Trump can both please the hawks and force Iran to the bargaining table for a deal that would carry the Trump brand.”
“Trump would be the first U.S. president to meet an Iranian president since the 1970s, an idea that appeals to him, said advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the president’s views. He has made an offer that has no precedent since the Islamic republic was born out of a bitterly anti-American revolution in 1979, saying repeatedly that he would sit down with ‘no conditions.’”
“President Trump lashed out Sunday night at the news media for reporting that he would meet with Iranian leaders with ‘no conditions’ — something Trump has said on camera at least twice and that senior administration officials repeated to reporters just last week,” the Washington Post reports.
Reuters: “Samples taken by the U.N. nuclear watchdog at what Israel’s prime minister called a ‘secret atomic warehouse’ in Tehran showed traces of uranium that Iran has yet to explain.”
“The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is investigating the particles’ origin and has asked Iran to explain the traces. But Tehran has not done so, according to the diplomats, stoking tensions between Washington and Tehran.”
“The Trump administration keeps sending conflicting and contradictory messages to Iran about its terms for new negotiations, multiple U.S and European officials tell the Daily Beast. And the ensuing chaos has vexed the president, complicated diplomatic efforts for American allies abroad, and utterly baffled policymakers at home.”
“For several months, the United States has been actively attempting to pass messages, via allies, to the Iranians in an effort to move closer to beginning formal diplomatic talks with Tehran. However, diverging opinions within the Trump administration are foiling the nascent diplomatic process.”
“President Trump wants a new deal with Iran to replace the nuclear agreement he pulled out of, and he’s turning to one of his most hawkish confidants to help do it,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is working in close coordination with senior Trump administration officials who focus on Middle East policy to find an alternative to the Obama administration’s Iran deal… Part of that effort includes fielding ideas from outside actors, including foreign officials.”
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, with a senior administration official telling reporters Zarif should not be treated internationally as a “credible” interlocutor, Axios reports.
The Washington Post calls the sanctions “a dramatic step bound to escalate tensions.”
Bloomberg calls it “a provocative move that diminishes the prospects for a diplomatic solution to rising tensions that have brought the U.S. and Tehran to the brink of war.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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