As a tradition, US presidents who are exiting office, typically provide salient advice to the incoming president, as a gesture of goodwill. The advice that Obama gave Trump, was to maintain the recently ratified Iran Nuclear Deal. The deal required Iran to allow UN inspectors to visit their nuclear sites, in exchange for frozen Iranian assets totaling at least $25 million dollars. The deal also allowed Iran to reinstate business relationships with American companies such as Boeing, who quickly agreed to a $20 billion dollar deal for new airplanes.
Against sage advice from our European allies, and Russia – Trump announced to the world, that he was withdrawing from the agreement on May 8, 2018. His motivation was most likely another jab at President Obama, in his effort to undue his accomplishments, but also as a gesture of alliance with Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu had solicited Obama’s approval for years, to attack their Middle East nemesis. He knew that Israel could not strike Iran unilaterally, without being universally condemned. Netanyahu clearly saw a rejuvenated Iran, as a threat to their national security and their Middle East ambitions. However, Obama denied his requests and advised him to avoid starting a war with Iran.
No one was more enthusiastic about Trump’s ascendancy to the highest office, than Netanyahu (well perhaps Putin) but that’s another topic. Netanyahu knew that Trump would give him the blessing, he was seeking to attack Iran and destabilize their economy and leadership. No longer would he have to worry about being ostracized for an attack, because he knew that Trump was a man, who could be easily compromised.
Trump’s recent assassination of General Qasem Soleimani was most likely a direct request from Netanyahu. Their mutual admiration has been highly publicized, Netanyahu even recently announced that he would name new settlements in contested parts of Golan Heights after Trump.
The assassination of Soleimani served no other purpose than to appease Israel. Despite Secretary Pompeo and VP Pence’s claim that Soleimani was planning an attack on American embassies and that he was involved in the 9/11 attacks, his murder was most likely a gift for Netanyahu and a diversion from Trump’s impeachment. It was also, recently revealed that Trump had considered assassinating Soleimani, six months ago, but determined that he was not a high-value target.
Netayanhu and Trump had tried previously to concoct a rationale for striking Iran, by claiming that Iran was responsible for attacking a Japanese oil tanker on June 13th, 2019 in the Gulf of Oman, while the leader of Iran was meeting with Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe.
It’s very likely that Israel was behind the attack, in an effort to destabilize Iranian diplomacy and blame Iran for the attack, a theory which Trump gladly repeated on national television. Trump acted in a similar manner after the Khashoggi murder, despite US intelligence findings that Prince Mohammad bin Salman was responsible, he perpetuated the Saudi’s defense, that it was a rogue team of hitmen, responsible for Khashoggi’s murder.
Soliemani’s assassination is the result of two, power thirsty leaders seeking to gain leverage and political favor, by any means necessary. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend..”
-Barrington D. Ross
Barry's Blog 