Shortly after signing the MOU, Trump expressed approval for Iran’s continued production of ballistic missiles: “I’m saying that if other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them not to have some…. If Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they all have some, I would say in relative proportion, I think it’s okay.” No, it is not “okay.” Qatar and Saudi Arabia do not go around shooting up their neighbors or vowing “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” every day.
It would be naive not at least to consider the possibility that countries such as Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan are all charmingly — and often lavishly — waiting Trump out, while positioning themselves for their versions of “best interests” the minute he leaves office.
“Qatar is at the top of funding terrorism worldwide…. Even more than Iran,” according to Udi Levy, a former senior official of Israel’s Mossad spy agency who dealt with economic warfare against terrorist organizations.
Turkey has been appearing as Trump’s back-up “friend,” and it now hopes that he will supply F-35 stealth fighter jets, even as it plans for a war with Israel and threatens Greece and Cyprus.
The Republican Party is divided between the isolationist faction embodied by Vice President JD Vance and the majority who remember all too well that what starts in Sudetenland does not stay in Sudetenland, and who still see Israel, a fellow democracy, as a powerhouse of military and human intelligence essential for maintaining US influence in the Middle East.
According to the New York Times, Vance talked Trump into this “deal” with Iran’s terrorist regime, a situation worse than no deal, because one succumbs to the soothing illusion that you might actually have an enforceable agreement. It is the same trap that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain walked into with Germany’s Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1938, but by now we should know better. What the US should pursue is unconditional surrender — “We win, they lose” — as with Germany and Japan in World War II.
Trump was offering Iran billions to “rebuild” — it is not clear what, but likely its military and nuclear weapons program. Iran’s frozen assets, therefore, were not to be used to repay the US, Israel or the Arab Gulf States for the damage Iran inflicted on them, but to rebuild Iran’s nuclear program, which includes “thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges” hidden under Pickaxe Mountain. Iran was about to be rewarded for waging a 47-year war by getting repaid to continue it.
Israel flatly announced that it would continue to defend itself – as well as defending Western civilization – despite Vance’s unseemly and misplaced fulminations, which falsely portrayed Israel as the belligerent while ignoring Iran, the actual aggressor.
The MOU contains not one word about the regime’s violent crackdown on the Iranian people. According to Trump, 54,000 Iranian protestors were killed by Iran’s security forces in January alone…. The Iranian people feel betrayed.
Vance, who has never expressed friendly sentiments toward Israel nor supported the war on Iran, was given the task of negotiating with Iran. He has been trying to defend his indefensible MOU and slamming Israeli officials who, frozen out of the negotiations, had the nerve to express reservations about the abysmal results.
Trump has claimed several times that “regime change” has already taken place in Iran. This is misleading and he knows it. The IRGC has always been part of the regime; it now holds the levers of power. The mullahs’ regime has simply become the IRGC regime. The faces have changed but the same policies and institutions remain.
Trump originally described Iran’s current leaders as “less radical” and “very rational people” — until, just hours after the electronic signature, the very official who had signed it, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, went on television and called for “the liberation of Jerusalem.”
What Trump may be forgetting is that Americans love victory.
It is to be hoped that now Trump will actually “finish the job” — with regime change and without F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. Otherwise, the chance of any long-term peace in the Middle East is zero.
“Scum” would seem quite fitting to describe the current Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially after Israel informed US President Donald J. Trump that Iran’s leaders are planning to kill him.
It is to be hoped that the US President might now kindly reconsider who his real friends are and who America’s real friends are. A few of President Trump’s “good friends” he has mentioned are the leaders of Qatar, Turkey, Russia and China. They might be friends of his; unfortunately, that does not mean they have at heart the best interests of America or the West. Their definitions of “best interests ” may well consist of what they would like — not necessarily what the Free World might like.
It would be naive not at least to consider the possibility that countries such as Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan are all charmingly — and often lavishly — waiting Trump out, while positioning themselves for their versions of “best interests” the minute he leaves office.
Qatar, a country with only 350,000 citizens, reportedly has “invested” between $400 billion and $1.2 trillion since 2000 toward “influencing” the United States. It is not promoting Jeffersonian democracy. This number does not include Qatar’s gift to the US of a $400 million “flying palace” presidential jumbo jet or a pledge of $243 billion, “laying the groundwork for a bigger $1.2 trillion economic pledge.” What is Qatar requesting and expecting as a return on the investment? Has anyone asked?
Qatar is also the largest supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, which openly seeks “the downfall of the West by its own hands.” The Muslim Brotherhood’s motto is “Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
“Qatar is at the top of funding terrorism worldwide…. Even more than Iran,” according to Udi Levy, a former senior official of Israel’s Mossad spy agency who dealt with economic warfare against terrorist organizations.
Turkey has been appearing as Trump’s back-up “friend,” and it now hopes that he will supply F-35 stealth fighter jets, even as it plans for a war with Israel and threatens Greece and Cyprus.
Indoctrination is coming from China (here, here and here), instilling unfavorable views of Israel and the United States, and trying to derail America from constructing data centers and further developing artificial intelligence.
The Republican Party is divided between the isolationist faction embodied by Vice President JD Vance and the majority who remember all too well that what starts in Sudetenland does not stay in Sudetenland, and who still see Israel, a fellow democracy, as a powerhouse of military and human intelligence essential for maintaining US influence in the Middle East.
China’s record of unscrupulousness against the US is as long as it is elaborate. It includes sending spy balloons over America’s most sensitive military bases; buying “farmland” next to them; flooding the country with fentanyl and other synthetic opioids that have taken the lives of more than 100,000 Americans each year, the equivalent of downing one large passenger plane every day; developing deadly pathogens in secret laboratories; smuggling poisonous agricultural pathogens into the country, stealing roughly $600,000 worth of intellectual property each year; lying about the human transmissibility of Covid-19, thereby costing the lives of more than one million Americans; smuggling in hundreds of military-aged men who may be waiting for a cue from their home country; creating so far, by an industrial-scale birthright-tourism industry, an estimated 1.3 million new American citizens who are immediately taken back to China and educated there until they are 18, when they can return, vote, donate to campaigns, run for office and potentially take over America — to name just a few of the Chinese Communist Party’s infractions.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, has, for the length of his career, brought nothing but grief to every place he touched. He turned the Russian city of Grozny into rubble, approved the use of chemical weapons in Syria; and invaded Georgia, Crimea and the Ukraine — where he has seen more than 2 million Russian casualties since his ill-advised invasion.
After reading the non-binding Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the United States and Iran, one might well wonder how the president could have approved such a text. It has been described as “a surrender agreement with a murderous and cruel terror regime.”
According to the New York Times, Vance talked Trump into this “deal” with Iran’s terrorist regime, a situation worse than no deal, because one succumbs to the soothing illusion that you might actually have an enforceable agreement. It is the same trap that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain walked into with Germany’s Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler in 1938, but by now we should know better. What the US should pursue is unconditional surrender — “We win, they lose” — as with Germany and Japan in World War II.
The MOU failed to address any of the objectives outlined by Trump on February 28, when US and Israeli military operations against Iran began. Not a single word addresses the danger posed by Iranian ballistic missiles, even though it has become clear — since Iranian launches directed at Diego Garcia—that Iran possesses many with a range far exceeding previous estimates. Iran’s missiles are capable of reaching most of Europe and they may soon have missiles putting the United States within range.
Worse, shortly after signing the MOU, Trump expressed approval for Iran’s continued production of ballistic missiles:
“I’m saying that if other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them not to have some…. If Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they all have some, I would say in relative proportion, I think it’s okay.”
No, it is not “okay.” Qatar and Saudi Arabia do not go around shooting up their neighbors or vowing “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” every day.
There was also no mention in the MOU of Iran’s terrorist proxies, except for an oblique and ambiguous mention of “Lebanon.” The text states that the cessation of hostilities is “total and permanent” on “all fronts, including in Lebanon,” and that Lebanon’s “territorial integrity and sovereignty” will henceforth be guaranteed. The Iranian regime appears to have been reading that as implicit permission for its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah — which took over Lebanon by being granted veto power in its government in 2008 — to stay in place to continue trying to obliterate Israel.
Also overlooked by the MOU was the devastation caused by the massive assaults on Israel, a country smaller than New Jersey (roughly 22,000 sq km). Wars against Israel, into which Hezbollah has dragged Lebanon, have turned beautiful Lebanon, once the “Switzerland of the Middle East,” into a failed state.
The agreement also required that “immediately upon the signing of this MoU, the United States of America will begin the removal of its naval blockade.” Trump was therefore agreeing to relinquish the leverage that the US had against the Iranian regime. The text further states that Iran will grant free passage to all vessels in the Persian Gulf for a period of “sixty days only” — the “only” meaning that after 60 days, Iran could demand from commercial ships tolls or “fees” for transiting the strait. Iran therefore now regards the strait as being under its control.
“The United States of America,” the MOU continues, “undertakes, with regional partners, to develop a definitive mutually agreed plan with at least $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. Trump was offering Iran billions to “rebuild” — it is not clear what, but likely its military and nuclear weapons program. Iran’s frozen assets, therefore, were not to be used to repay the US, Israel or the Arab Gulf States for the damage Iran inflicted on them, but to rebuild Iran’s nuclear program, which includes “thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges” hidden under Pickaxe Mountain. Iran was about to be rewarded for waging a 47-year war by getting repaid to continue it.
Even if the funding would not have come directly from American taxpayers, but instead from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, the proposal implied that Iran’s regime was about to be restored as powerful as ever, and that neighboring countries could soon expect to pay a protection tribute for using the Strait of Hormuz.
The risk of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons — the central issue Trump says he is seeking to prevent with the war — was touched on in the MOU, in a highly watered-down manner. The text states that “the Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons.” Iran’s regime has consistently claimed — while lying — that it has no desire for nuclear weapons. By signing the MOU, Trump appeared to accept this lie as the truth. In addition, he had previously demanded the removal or destruction of enriched uranium; then suddenly, he accepted “on-site blending” — at least until the uranium was enriched back up again.
The text also specified that this process would take place “under the supervision of the IAEA.” After witnessing the International Atomic Energy Agency’s sorry lack of effectiveness in the past, that provision should be permanently written off as wishful thinking.
The text concluded by speaking of upcoming talks regarding “the issue of enrichment, and other mutually agreed matters relating to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear needs,” signaling that Trump might be willing to accept continued uranium enrichment and possession of centrifuges – which, it turns out, Iran had already secreted under Pickaxe Mountain — and noted briefly in the MOU as “keeping the status quo.”
“Immediately upon the signing of this MOU,” the document stipulated, “and until the termination of sanctions, the U.S. Department of Treasury will issue waivers for the export of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives” – a waiver that Trump later rescinded following Iran’s ceasefire violations.
The MOU, as argued by those seeking to excuse the wretched nature of its content, is not a formal, binding treaty. It nevertheless established the foundation and framework for negotiations that had already begun. Ironically, the text of the MOU aligned so closely with Iranian demands that Iran’s leaders could easily have adhered to what had been accepted by the United States while preserving whatever they wished.
As for the goal of regime change in Iran, which Trump had promised the Iranian people by writing “Help is on its way,” he quickly declared a thing of the past: “We are not seeking regime change in Iran.” Iran’s current leadership, dominated by the ruthless IRGC, will be able to rebuild and consolidate its power. Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states, which have apparently grasped this new threat, have been acting accordingly. Having probably — not surprisingly — lost confidence in American security guarantees, they appear to be adapting to the survival of Iran’s regime and banking on maintaining dialogue with it rather than confronting it.
The MOU contains not one word about the regime’s violent crackdown on the Iranian people. According to Trump, 54,000 Iranian protestors were killed by Iran’s security forces in January alone. The MOU did not mention the continuing mass arrests, tortures, rapes or executions. The regime’s atrocities and the repression of its own citizens would therefore not only have continued but likely intensified. The tens of thousands of Iranians massacred by the regime in January have already been forgotten; they are simply never mentioned. The Iranian people feel betrayed.
For the time being, it seems, Iran’s Houthi proxy in Yemen will remain in place and continue to be funded and armed by Iran. Israel flatly announced that it would continue to defend itself – as well as defending Western civilization – despite Vance’s unseemly and misplaced fulminations, which falsely portrayed Israel as the belligerent while ignoring Iran, the actual aggressor.
Thanks to the impressive efforts of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the government of Lebanon is in the process of implementing a plan to be rid of Iran’s main proxy, Hezbollah. Rubio oversaw the signing of an agreement — this one binding — between the Lebanese, US and Israeli governments affirming their “shared goal of achieving lasting peace.” This binding agreement contradicts the terms of the non-binding MOU signed with Iran.
Israel has fought the war on Iran alongside the United States with the aim of preventing Iran’s regime from acquiring nuclear weapons and causing further harm to the Middle East, the US and the Free World. Like the Gulf Arabs – not to mention most of the Iranian people – Israel would probably like to see the end of Iran’s regime. Instead, a IRGC military regime, as horrendous or worse than that of the mullahs, remains in place, attacking neighbors with missiles and drones, supporting terrorism, and torturing and executing its citizens. Although weakened, Iran still possesses highly enriched uranium, missiles and drones and it is claiming ownership of the Strait of Hormuz, an international waterway, demanding “protection” fees from commercial ships and firing on those that decline.
On April 8, reportedly at Vance’s urging, Trump decided on a two-week ceasefire that lasted more than two months. Informed late about the ceasefire and excluded from the negotiations that followed the ceasefire, Israel was not mentioned in the MOU, even as an “entity.” Trump and his administration have made it clear that they expect Israel to accept all US decisions.
The Israeli people remember that Trump has long acted as a good friend to Israel, but they see that he has recently distanced himself from their country in favor of enemies that are sworn to Israel’s destruction. Trump even denied that Israel had shared intelligence about Iran’s newest assassination attempt.
Vance, who has never expressed friendly sentiments toward Israel nor supported the war on Iran, was given the task of negotiating with Iran. He has been trying to defend his indefensible MOU and slamming Israeli officials who, frozen out of the negotiations, had the nerve to express reservations about the abysmal results. For the US vice president to have stated that it is in the interest of Israeli leaders not to antagonize “the only powerful ally [they] have anywhere left in the entire world” was as inaccurate as it was venomous. Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, India, Argentina, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Bahrain — the last three members of the Abraham Accords — have all been steadfast allies.
Trump has claimed several times that “regime change” has already taken place in Iran. This is misleading and he knows it. The IRGC has always been part of the regime; it now holds the levers of power. The mullahs’ regime has simply become the IRGC regime. The faces have changed but the same policies and institutions remain.
Trump originally described Iran’s current leaders as “less radical” and “very rational people” — until, just hours after the electronic signature, the very official who had signed it, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, went on television and called for “the liberation of Jerusalem.” Recently he announced that Iran “will not allow any interference in the Strait of Hormuz,” then began violating every agreement.
What Trump may be forgetting is that Americans love victory.
Russia and China remain Iran’s allies; if Trump now proves to be irresolute, they will quickly help Iran regain its strength.
The Iranian regime insists that it will kill Trump, control the Strait of Hormuz, and, in general, suit itself.
European leaders, who, at the conflict’s outset, declared “this is not our war,” will most likely continue to pursue a policy of appeasement toward Iran while distancing themselves from Israel.
“We cannot have a status quo in which Iran can close the Strait at any time or use its proxies to attack Israel,” former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on June 19. “We have to finish the job so that this regime is defanged — period”.
On July 8, President Trump, at a NATO summit in Ankara, had apparently seen enough. Iran had fired on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz in violation of a week-long pause it had requested for the funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Trump announced that the ceasefire was “over”, called Iran’s leaders “scum” and said, “Let’s just finish the job.”
The US has been bombing Iranian military installations for the last ten days, impeding Iran’s ability to control the Strait of Hormuz.
It is impossible to believe that any kind of “deal” with Iran’s current regime — which will not abide by one anyhow — is even being contemplated.
It is to be hoped that now Trump will actually “finish the job” — with regime change and without F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. Otherwise, the chance of any long-term peace in the Middle East is zero.
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