Tag: Iran

Graham: Trump officials not adequately briefing on Iran threat

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says he and other lawmakers haven’t been adequately briefed by the Trump administration about the growing threat posed by Iran amid growing tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Graham, the chairman of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee and a top ally of President Trump‘s, said senators have been largely kept in the dark as the U.S. sends an aircraft carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East.

“No, I feel we haven’t been well informed and I’m writing a letter with Sen. Leahy today to try to get a briefing,” Graham said Wednesday afternoon, referring to Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee.

View the complete May 15 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

The White House builds a path to war with Iran

At a meeting with journalists in New York last month, Iran’s top diplomat offered a mnemonic for what he saw afflicting his nation. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif decried the “four Bs,” a group of men who, in Zarif’s view, were perfidiously steering the United States toward war with Iran. These were Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, United Arab Emirates crown prince and de facto ruler Mohamed bin Zayed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and White House national security adviser John Bolton. The first two, Sunni Arab royals, see Iran as a regional nemesis; the latter two have made no secret of their hostility to diplomacy with

Zarif stressed that he believed that these four men were at odds with President Trump, a leader averse to military entanglements in the Middle East and somebody who, left to his own devices, would happily cut a new deal with the Islamic republic rather than try to squeeze it into submission. But if the Iranian foreign minister genuinely thought Trump would tack a different direction a few weeks ago, he may think otherwise now.

On Monday, the New York Times reported that acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan last week presented an updated military plan that included the possible deployment of 120,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East, which could theoretically form the logistical springboard for a ground invasion of Iran. Shanahan did so on the apparent request of Bolton, who not long before issued a video of himself announcing the arrival of a U.S. carrier group in the region in response to supposed new threats from Iran and its militant proxies in Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere.

View the complete May 15 article by Ishaan Tharoor on The Washington Post website here.

Trump administration considers responses to potential Iranian attacks, including troop increase

The Trump administration is discussing a range of options for using military force against Iran, officials said Tuesday, as lawmakers from both parties complained that the White House has not fully briefed them on the escalating tensions.

Top advisers to President Trump met at the White House late last week to consider possible steps, including military action, as officials spoke of “credible threats” by Iran or Iranian proxy forcesto U.S. personnel. The Pentagon already has moved an aircraft carrier, strategic bombers and other military assets to re­inforce U.S. forces across the Middle East.

Officials said the options include increasing the number of troops in the region, currently between 60,000 and 80,000, to more than 100,000, in the most dramatic scenario were Iran to attack U.S. interests or make clear moves to develop a nuclear weapon.

View the complete May 14 article by Missy Ryan, John Hudson and Carol Morello on The Washington Post website here.

Iran announces it will stop complying with parts of landmark nuclear deal

Iran’s decision Wednesday to halt its compliance with elements of the landmark nuclear deal immediately escalates the crisis between Tehran and Washington, but the real flash point could come early this summer when Iran threatens to take a major step toward acquiring weapons-grade material.

In announcing Iran’s partial break with the nuclear accord, President Hassan Rouhani set a 60-day deadline to get relief from punishing sanctions, promising to resume enriching uranium to a higher level than now allowed under the treaty if his demand goes unmet.

While Iran’s dispute is with the United States, which abandoned the nuclear treaty a year ago, Rouhani’s pledge puts European nations squarely in the middle of the standoff by insisting they defy the U.S. embargo on Iran. Europeans may now determine what course history takes in the Middle East.

View the complete May 8 article by Tamer El-Ghobashy, Michael Birnbaum and Carol Morello on The Washington Post website here.

Trump labels Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terror group

The Trump administration announced Monday it is labeling Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a “foreign terrorist organization,” the first time the United States has applied the label to an entire government entity in a move designed to significantly ramp up the pressure on Tehran.

“This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences,” President Trump said in a statement Monday. “We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the Iranian regime for its support of terrorist activity until it abandons its malign and outlaw behavior.”

The designation will take effect one week from Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters at the State Department shortly after Trump issued his statement.

View the complete April 8 article by Rebecca Kheel on The Hill website here.

Is a War With Iran on the Horizon?

The Trump Administration Is Reckless Enough to Turn the Cold War With Iran Into a Hot One

Here’s the foreign policy question of questions in 2019: Are President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, all severely weakened at home and with few allies abroad, reckless enough to set off a war with Iran? Could military actions designed to be limited — say, a heightening of the Israeli bombing of Iranian forces inside Syria, or possible U.S. cross-border attacks from Iraq, or a clash between American and Iranian naval ships in the Persian Gulf — trigger a wider war?

Worryingly, the answers are: yes and yes. Even though Western Europe has lined up in opposition to any future conflict with Iran, even though Russia and China would rail against it, even though most Washington foreign policy experts would be horrified by the outbreak of such a war, it could happen. Continue reading “Is a War With Iran on the Horizon?”

President Trump’s claim that Democrats gave Iran $150 billion

“The Democrats and President Obama gave Iran 150 Billion Dollars and got nothing, but they can’t give 5 Billion Dollars for National Security and a Wall?”

— President Trump in a tweet, Dec. 12, 2018

This is an egregious version of a claim that President Trump has made repeatedly — about 30 times, according to our database of Trump’s false and misleading claims. We had originally looked into the details of the $150 billion for a fact check during President Barack Obama’s administration, fact-checked the claim during the 2016 presidential debatesand noted it in roundups of various Trump news conferencesand interviews.

Somehow it’s never been put to the Pinocchio Test. But if the president is going to keep getting this wrong, it’s time to give this falsehood a Pinocchio rating.

The Facts

There are two numbers that Trump loves to reference when discussing the international nuclear agreement negotiated with Iran when Obama was president: $150 billion and $1.7 billion. The latter was a cash transaction, said to be the settlement of a long-standing Iranian claim against the United States, with interest, that was curiously timed to arrive when Iran released four detained Americans. (We discussed this payment at length in this fact check.)

View the complete December 13 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.

Trump reimposes Iran nuclear deal sanctions

The following article by Rebecca Kheel was posted on the Hill website August 6, 2018:

The Trump administration announced Monday the reimposition of sanctions on Iran that were lifted as part of a nuclear agreement with the country.

The sanctions will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and follow through on the order President Trump gave when he withdrew from the nuclear pact in May.

“The United States is fully committed to enforcing all of our sanctions, and we will work closely with nations conducting business with Iran to ensure complete compliance. Individuals or entities that fail to wind down activities with Iran risk severe consequences,” Trump said in a statement Monday.

View the complete article here.

Trump would meet with Iran’s president with “no preconditions”

The following article was posted on the Axios website July 30, 2018:

President Trump said Monday that he is willing to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani without preconditions.

“I believe in meeting…I had a great meeting with President Putin of Russia. … I would certainly meet with Iran if they’re ready to meet.”

Why it matters: The Trump administration has employed destabilization and delegitimization versus the Iranian regime, encouraging its citizens to pile pressure on their government and showing tacit support for regime change. Rouhani has reportedly rejected meeting in the past. Now, Trump’s willingness to meet is a stated U.S. position.

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Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Obama wanted to meet with the Iranian president, yet the Iranians denied the request. So much for Hope & Change.

Trump’s dangerous obsession with Iran

The following article by Ishaan Tharoor was posted on the Washington Post website July 24, 2018:

Credit: Washington Post

In America’s fevered political landscape, supporters of President Trump often cast criticism of him as a symptom of a condition: “Trump derangement syndrome.” Trump’s opponents are so possessed by their contempt for him, the diagnosis goes, that they embrace positions and pursue policy goals they would never consider in any other context. Supposed examples of this include the newfound Russophobia among some American liberals and the knee-jerk rejection to Trump’s overtures to North Korea — signs of partisan tribalism supposedly displacing political logic.

But Trump and his lieutenants are guilty of their own derangement syndromes, most conspicuously when it comes to Iran. Even as Trump has gone out of his way to cozy up to an autocrat in Moscow, embraced human-rights-abusing Arab monarchs and celebrated his friendliness with the world’s most isolated dictator, he sees in Tehran an implacable, irreconcilable enemy.

On Sunday night, the White House ratcheted up tensions with the Islamic republic. Trump issued a dramatic tweet, addressing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in all caps: “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.”

View the complete article here.