What did Trump do differently to Obama on Iran?published at 14:40 BST
14:40 BST
Gary O’Donoghue
Chief North America correspondent, reporting from Washington DC
Image source, ReutersImage caption,
Trump and Obama in the Oval Office in 2016
If there’s one thing Donald Trump has been clear about
regarding the US deal with Iran, it’s promising that it will be better than the
one Barack Obama signed in 2015.
“We didn’t pay for it like Obama did. He paid billions of
dollars,” President Trump told reporters at the G7 summit in France this
morning.
Both deals, however, involve sanctions relief and unfreezing
Iranian money – though the current White House says that will all depend on
Iran meeting its obligations under the agreement.
We were also briefed that one of the proposals still being
discussed is a $300bn (£224bn) fund to help rebuild Iran. Who would pay for that
was uncertain, but the president has now dismissed the idea as “fake
news”.
There is undeniably some overlap. Both Trump’s deal and
Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) involved inspections to
ensure Iran doesn’t develop a nuclear weapon.
What neither deal has directly addressed is the political
plight of the Iranian people – they are no freer than before.
The obvious difference, of course, is that Barack Obama
never bombed Iran.
Donald Trump did and said US strikes have destroyed much of
the country’s nuclear facilities and buried its stockpiles of uranium.
But war has come at a cost. Iran launched attacks on many of
its neighbours in the region including Israel, further destabilising an already
volatile Middle East.
It also closed the Strait of Hormuz, pushing up energy and
fertiliser prices worldwide – that was new and hugely damaging.
That’s why Trump’s deal – at least in the first phase being
announced this week – focuses less on the detail of limiting Iran’s nuclear
programme, and more on containing a conflict.