Mohammad Jamil
LAST week, the United States was further isolated over its bid to re-impose international sanctions on Iran, with 13 countries on the 15-member United Nations Security Council expressing their opposition. Germany, France and Britain refused to toe Washington’s line. They argued that the US did not have the legal right to trigger snapback sanctions because it pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. In May 2018, Donald Trump had withdrawn from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear agreement, which encompassed a rigorous set of restrictions and inspections guaranteeing that Iran would not obtain a nuclear weapon. It has to be mentioned that the JCPOA was not just an agreement between the US and Iran but one negotiated by the P5+1 (the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) and endorsed by the United Nations Security Council. The US allies had then declared that they would continue to support the agreement, as it was in their own national security interests.
Trump also rejected the advice of his own top national security officials like the Chair Joint Chiefs General Joseph Dunford and Defence Secretary James Mattis, who repeatedly stated that staying in the agreement is in the national security interests of the US. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he triggered a 30-day countdown to a return of UN sanctions on Iran – including an arms embargo – long-time allies the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Belgium as well as China, Russia, Vietnam, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Indonesia, Estonia and Tunisia have already written letters in opposition, Reuters news agency reported. On 6th December 2017, President Trump had annoyed the Muslim world by officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and had announced he would move the US embassy there.
This outrageous act had ignited violence, stirred unrest across the region and destroyed hopes of reviving the Mideast peace process. But Trump said that he invoked the Jerusalem Embassy Act of October 1995, which was passed to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel. Whereas all other presidents had deemed it appropriate not to endorse the Jewish State’s claim of sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem since then, and believed its future was linked to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace agreement. All US presidents since then had been issuing waivers after every six months because of the national security concerns. Anyhow, President Trump’s dangerous gambit was criticized from left, right and centre. On the other hand, Biden is on record having challenged plans by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend sovereignty to Jewish settlements in the West Bank — de facto annexation of territory Israel seized in 1967 War.
President Donald Trump in his inaugural address on 20 January had sown the seeds of isolation when he annoyed American friends and allies, when he signalled that it would not spend on their defence any more. Among other things he said: “We defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own. And the US spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country dissipated over the horizon. One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind”. It is because of this policy that the US stands isolated today, as the allies who always supported the US in UNSC voted against the resolution for imposing sanctions on Iran.
In 2017, President Donald Trump had said: “Pakistan gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror”, and asked Pakistan to demonstrate its commitment to civilization. Since Prime Minister Imran Khan has been in office, Trump’s approach has been more conciliatory, but in substance he did not help much. Now all eyes are on Joe Biden, who while accepting Democratic nomination for President after three days of a Democratic National Convention offered a promise of hope and said: “This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme… Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. And light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment. This is our mission. May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light joined in the battle for the soul of the nation”.
His statements about Pakistan, Kashmir, Iran and other issues show that he would pursue different policies and would try to take the US out of isolation. As Vice President, Joe Biden has been instrumental into shaping the landmark Kerry-Lugar Bill signed into law in 2009, which provided $7.5 billion of non-military aid to Pakistan. Biden had visited Pakistan several times, and during one visit in 2008, he was given the Hilal-e-Pakistan, Pakistan’s top civilian award for the role he played in contributing to democracy and socio-economic development in Pakistan. During Ramadan, Joe Biden said: “If I have the honour of being elected President, the annual White House Eid celebration will be reinstated, and the doors of the White House will reopen as a home for all Americans.” After the passage of Citizenship Law by India, Biden said, if elected, he would raise the issue of Kashmir with India and would also convey its concern on a recent Indian law that discriminates against Muslims. However, it is to be seen as to how far he would assert after he is elected as President of the US, as Israeli and Indian lobbies would create hurdles in his efforts to mend fences with Muslims created due to the policies of President Donald Trump.
—The writer is a senior journalist based in Lahore.
