Intel: How the Trump team uses ‘America First’ playbook on Iran

Al-Monitor Staff

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton answers questions from reporters after announcing that the U.S. will withdraw from the Vienna protocol and the 1955 "Treaty of Amity" with Iran as White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders looks on during a news conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, U.S., October 3, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst - RC17A0C7F6B0 — US national security adviser John Bolton answers questions from reporters after announcing that the US will withdraw from the Vienna protocol and the 1955 Treaty of Amity with Iran as White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders looks on during a news conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, DC, Oct. 3, 2018. — REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

By pulling out of a decades-old treaty of amity with Iran, the Donald Trump administration is sending a clear message to the rest of the world that it will not accept any challenge to its policy to counter Iran.

The UN’s top court ruled this morning that the US should lift sanctions on Iranian “humanitarian” goods. Within hours, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had announced the US was pulling out of the treaty that the Iranians used to bring their complaint to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“This basically says, look, the US is serious about reimposing sanctions and international rulings,” said Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration. “And if the rulings go against us, we’re going to withdraw.”

“The message is simple to the Europeans,” Rubin told Al-Monitor. “This is the policy, and the Trump administration isn’t about to turn it around, regardless of what they do.”

Intel: How the Trump team uses ‘America First’ playbook on Iran

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