After more than a year of slights, threats and discord, over issues from defence spending to trade to the threat from climate change, Donald Trump made clear his contempt for his European allies and the rules-based international order when he announced his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement.
The deal was born in Europe after the 2003 Iraq War, when Britain, France and Germany took on the task of addressing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
European unity was shaken by the continent’s split over the Iraq invasion but its three biggest powers came together only months later to begin the often painful 12-year journey towards the Iran nuclear deal.
Having withdrawn, Trump has not only spurned multilateral diplomacy but has put the US in material breach of an international agreement enshrined in a unanimous UN Security Council resolution. Not content with that, he is threatening to punish Europe by imposing sanctions on its companies and institutions doing business with Iran. It was, European Council president Donald Tusk noted, a reality check months in the coming. Trump should be thanked for puncturing Europe’s illusion that it could rely on the US and showing that it must act alone and united
Read the article by Catherine Philp in The Weekend Australian.