Iran places its bets on Donald Trump not lasting much longer
Yesterday Donald Trump falsely claimed that Iran had committed a number of violations of its peace deal with the United States, and then announced that the U.S. was withdrawing from the deal. We suspect Trump will end up negotiating the same deal with different wording, so he can take credit for President Obama’s accomplishment. Others have other theories. But there’s no mistaking Iran’s response, and it’s now clear that Iran doesn’t expect Trump to last long.
Yesterday, Palmer Report predicted that Iran might do a bit of chest beating in response, but that it would end up keeping the peace deal intact with the U.S. allies who are still on board with it. After all, while the Trump regime is an extremist criminal empire, the Rouhani regime in Iran really does appear to prefer peaceful foreign relations and international free trade. It turns out Iran skipped the chest beating, and instead jumped straight to the part where it began working with U.S. allies on a revised version of the deal.
This is a big deal, because Iran had another option for peacefully moving forward. It could have played along with Trump’s game by announcing that it promised not to do any of the things that he had just falsely accused it of doing. This would have put pressure on Trump to re-up the deal, whether that was his goal or not. Instead, Iran decided to simply leave Trump and the United States out of the equation. By negotiating with U.S. allies, Iran is setting itself up to be able to continue selling oil to everyone but the U.S.
That’s sustainable for Iran, but it’s not what Rouhani wants. He wants continued free trade with America – yet he’s not even bothering to play Donald Trump’s game. In other words, Iran is placing its bets on Trump not lasting much longer. It’s decided to bypass him entirely, and resume negotiating with the United States once Trump has been ousted.
