Washington – US President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear agreement to undo his predecessor Barack Obama’s legacy, former Obama administration official Wendy Sherman said Thursday.
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“[Trump] pulled out of deal because it was a signature achievement of President Obama’s,” Sherman said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio, adding that Trump has made a point of walking back many other Obama-era policies.
Sherman, who served as under secretary of state for political affairs, the fourth-ranking official in the US State Department, from September 2011 to October 2015, listed the desire to satisfy the Republican party’s conservative base as another reason for Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed in 2015 by six world powers. Sherman also suggested Trump genuinely shares Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s concerns about the deal.
“He obviously cares about what the Israeli prime minister believes,” she told veteran investigative journalist Ilana Dayan, adding “we all care about Israel’s security.”
Dayan pushed back, asking whether Israelis are justified in feeling that Trump not only shares their concerns, but is willing to act militarily against Iran if it comes down to it, something she suggested Obama may have been unwilling to do. Perhaps Trump, she said, is willing to walk the walk.
“It’s not fair to say Obama was not open to a military option,” Sherman said.
During his presidency, Obama commissioned a new weapon, a penetrative bomb, that could destroy Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment facility, Sherman added. The former Obama administration official was seemingly referring to 30,000-pound, bunker-buster bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) that the US planned to use as a last resort against Iran.
But Obama made clear throughout his presidency that he believed military action would only set Iran back temporarily in its quest for a nuclear weapon. Sherman echoed that sentiment.
“You in Israel know Iran could build another facility,” she said. “Military option is not a good thing, it would lead to broader war in the Middle East,” she added.
Sherman said she appreciated the Mossad’s work in obtaining the information Netanyahu presented in a live public address last month, allegedly proving “Iran lied big time,” about its nuclear program. But she didn’t learn anything new from the prime minister’s speech, she said.
“This is not news,” she said. “The reason we had the negotiation in the first place is because we knew the Iranians lied.”
On top of every comment, to the right, there is a link that says “Report as Inappropriate”. I am asking you to click that link on a comment that is inappropriate, and comment back here to tell us whether your report went through.
That would be a good reason for me. Obumer was/is an evil man.
Just as a Muslim cannot be trusted, as they consider dishonesty and lying virtuous, the same goes for Obama and his administration. The notion that Trump took action only to undo Obama’s legacy is comically absurd. Not only do these fools lack honesty, but we can say the same for their intellect. Knowing the extent of the evil that Obama perpetrated on America and on its closest ally, Israel, it is a priority to undo that damage. The result is that Obama’s legacy of harm to America’s interests gets trashed.
Fake news that a stupid ignoramus would believe.
Of course an obama employee would say that . They won’t say it was a bad deal . Neither will they admit to the fact that it emboldened and enriched Iran . Since 2015 Iran made lots of tzarus in Syria and Yemen . And unlike n Korea they actively ship misseles to rouge enemies and to they call for our death
It’s really that simple
the obamanation wanted to protect Israel so much that he gave iran billions of dollars so they could fund hamas and hezbollah to kill Jews in Israel
and he didn’t commission a new weapon as the 30,000-pound, bunker-buster bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) was first initiated after the 2003 invasion of iraq and first tested in 2007 long before the obamanation entered office
obumma is anti Semite but the leftist Jews will never admit
It is interesting to think that generations of historians will study President Trump’s actions from all angles. People who were with him in the room will be interviewed or write their own accounts. The emails, the documents will be parsed to the last dot. History will examine these actions and judge them one way or another.
He also forgot to mention that Obama signed the treaty to spite Netanyahu.
Why anyone thinks that Israel needs help from America to squash Iran is beyond me. Iran knows that, and uses proxies like Nasrallah & Assad, & Hamas. Israel has warned the 3 of them, and Iran, that the gloves are off, and that they will hold Iran responsible. If Iran continues with their Nuke development, Israel could (and will) turn Tehran into a parking lot.