In his speech at the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, US President Donald Trump covered a spectrum of issues ranging from global security, trade and above all US’s idea of sovereignty. He reaffirmed his commitment to America first policies by rejecting globalism in favor of patriotism. Trump slammed the international bureaucracy announcing that the US will press ahead with further sanctions on Iran and keep sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) until denuclearization occurs.
There’re a couple of things to note in his speech. From what we’ve seen on Tuesday on his stand on NATO, it is clear, he’s a businessman. The bottom-line for him is, if an institution or group is squandering money of the US, he will stop funding it. But at the same time, he works on his own logic.
When it comes to the alliance remember as well that he proposed an Arab-NATO. He is not totally against alliances. He said about the NATO that the US cannot bear all the financial weight and that the other countries in the alliance need to increase their defense budget. So, all this shouldn’t be big surprise for the allies. Only time will show whether America will end up alone in this case.
President Trump also said: America will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control and domination and that US will not tell you how to live or work or worship, we only ask you that you honour our sovereignty in return.
When it comes to US global governance in terms of interfering in the Middle East and economic sanctions on various countries. Is there may be some irony here when President Trump says this.
There’s an obvious inconsistency in his message. There are two separate messages in fact. On the one hand, trump emphasized sovereignty, on US keeping this independence. On the other hand, he’s speaking of interfering in other countries’ domestic politics which is very much disrespectful of the sovereignty of other countries. So, the blunt message is that US may have its sovereignty but other countries may not. This is unacceptable on the other hand, he also talked about losing Sovereignty and other people interfering in American domestic politics. He probably referred to the alleged Russian inference in US elections and also about unfair trade practices of other countries. In his eyes, that’s the concession made by the US to others, giving money to other countries. He’s talking about protecting US self-interest instead of global interest.
It is the US that pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal popularly known as the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Program of Action (JCPOA). A number of European nations have decided to stay with it and the EU itself talks about finding ways around the sanctions to make sure that they can still keep doing business with Iran. Does that put US and its European allies on some sort of collision course over Iran which can’t really be fixed if they hold completely different views?
A couple of things need to be put in perspective. Look at Trump's speech at United Nations General Assembly last year where he hit hard on North Korea. Now look at Trump’s speech at UNGA this year where North Korea was praised time and again.
Consider Trumps tweet: ‘’Despite requests, I have no plan to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Maybe someday in the future. I’m sure he is an absolutely lovely man!’’
It is interesting that they left the door open to meet the Iranians. He was clear on the Iran deal being the worst deal ever signed by the United States during his campaign. So, he didn’t take anyone by surprise. How the corporate world in Europe has responded to that cancellation of the deal which he hadn’t back in 2007 or 2008 or 2009 where the sanctions were in place is intriguing. And, many companies did not abide by the deal especially oil companies.
Now even companies with no business in the United States from Western Europe are pulling out of Iran which means that they’re extremely scared about the consequences of challenging the US.
Trump by pulling out of the deal is basically crippling the Iranian economy in a way that hasn’t been tried before. And the flow of investment has dried up quickly. It should have a major domestic impact in Iran. And, one way or another it will possibly push for Iranians to rebel because they were hoping that the JCPOA deal would improve their life.
Md Sharif Hasan works as a field researcher for the Centre for Genocide Studies (CGS) at the University of Dhaka.