Trump Threatens Trade War, Forgets Biden's JCPOA Legacy
Donald Trump's recent declaration of a 25 percent tariff on countries trading with Iran is framed by Al Jazeera as a fresh escalation. Yet, this aggressive stance is less novel than it appears. The 'maximum pressure' campaign, including sanctions that choked Iran's economy and scuttled the JCPOA — a verifiable international accord signed by the Obama administration (and then abandoned by Trump in
2018) — has been a bipartisan fixture for decades. One might wonder if the objective is stability or permanent economic warfare, given how quickly normalized relations are sabotaged. This isn't about 'anti-government protests' as the article vaguely suggests. It's a continuation of Washington's long-standing strategy to economically isolate Iran, a strategy incidentally celebrated by prominent
lobbying groups like AIPAC, who annually spend millions (OpenSecrets.org confirms AIPAC spent $4.1M in lobbying in 2023 alone) to ensure a hawkish U.S. policy towards Tehran. The tariff threat simply weaponizes economic dependency, forcing allies into America's perpetual shadow war against Iran. How many more 'threats' until the rest of the world chooses economic sovereignty over obeying U.S.
whims?