A few years back I had an interesting phone conversation with the then successful, if
controversial, business person and now President of the United States, Donald J Trump.
And Donald Trump was trying to persuade me to block an offshore wind
demonstrator, offshore his golf course in the Menie state in Aberdeenshire, and he
pointed out to me, or he claimed to me, that my predecessor Jack McConnell had
given him a solemn promise that that demonstrator would be blocked and he
said does that not carry on to your administration and in words which are
deeply ironic today I said to him no, Donald, that might apply to international
treaties but it doesn't apply to planning permission. Now incidentally
I've got no idea whether Jack McConnell really did give such a commitment I've
only got Donald J Trump's word for it, but it's ironic of course because this
day Donald Trump has torn up an international agreement with Iran signed
by his predecessor in terms of the United States. Now that has huge
implications for the credibility of the United States worldwide, I mean if you're
supreme leader Kim in North Korea seeing an international treaty torn up because
somebody has changed their mind because the president has changed it's not going to
give you much confidence in upcoming negotiations but the other consequences
are more serious and more immediate. Very few of us in the West know much about
the history of Iran, even the recent history of Iran, and I suppose to some
understanding it's a cradle of civilization' but how many people for
example know that in 1953 a democratically elected Social Democratic Prime
Minister of Iran was overthrown in a coup instigated by British Petroleum BP
and American oil companies who persuaded President Eisenhower and Prime Minister
Churchill to overthrow the elected government of Iran because the Prime
Minister had the audacity to want to have a share of oil revenues for the
Iranian people, and the subsequent events, the totalitarian rule of the
Shah, the overthrow of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 came directly from that
disastrous intervention of 1953. How many people know that Iran and Iraq
both lost hundreds of thousands of people when in the war of the 1980s, a
war which according to Iran, with some justification, where Iraq and
Saddam Hussein was supported and financed by the United States of America.
That war overshadows Iranian politics today so it's all the more remarkable
that the present government of Iran, that is President Rouhani and foreign
secretary Zarif negotiated such a progressive deal with all of the Western
powers to give up their nuclear capability in return for an easing of
sanctions. What a precious wonderful deal that was and that is what is being
torn up at the present moment. The consequences could be extraordinarily
serious, not just for the credibility of the United States, but for the position
of President Rouhani and Foreign Secretary Zarif. What is their credibility
going to be like which they have staked on improving the lot of the Iranian people.
What's gonna happen if a more hardline president comes in? If Iran reversed a
fundamentalist attitude towards religion and towards politics, what is that gonna mean
for peace and the stability in the Middle East. Where does it leave the
companies of the other five powers who signed the deal who say they want to
keep going ahead with it? What's gonna happen to British companies, German
companies, French companies, Russian companies, Chinese companies, if they are
then subject to sanctions by the United States of America? What's at stake here
is fundamental and it's even more fundamental than a temper tantrum in
the White House, because no deal that Donald J Trump doesn't sign can
therefore by definition be a good deal. He's the only deal maker in the world.
This is and was a good nuclear deal with Iran. But my final thought is to the
Iranian people. Many countries have political difficulties, and many countries
have political systems of which we don't entirely approve and the theocratic
element of Iranian politics is something which most people in the West find
difficult. But this is an educated, sophisticated, increasingly Western
leaning population. They are hugely engaging people and they want to engage
so my last thought is not just to give peace a chance in the Middle East but to
give the Iranian people a chance as well.
you
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét