Making sense of what we can not know
It always amazes me at the surety of opposing political opinion. People with diametrically opposed views battling it out in debate, each believing their view is correct and the other false.
I have been listening on the BBC World Service to a group of so called experts evaluating the outcome of Donald Trumps move to pull out from the Obama negotiated deal with Iran regarding Iran's termination of trying to attain nuclear weapons.
The dangers of relighting the fuse in the Middle East by imposing fresh sanctions in an effort to bring to heel a rogue state who's paramilitary excursions (through Hezbollah) are everywhere in, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Israel, or to maintain the status quo in the hope that more prosperity in Iran would swing the popular vote and make the state more compliant
The agreement signed by Obama allowed the funds to flow again to Iran from oil sales, funds which it was hoped would bring back some measure of prosperity but funds also which allowed Hezbollah to prosper.
The balancing act of preventing the growth of Iranian nuclear power which ostensibly is aimed at Israel, against the proliferation of guerrilla warfare in the surrounding states of the Middle East but also further afield is a delicate one. The mayhem in Yemen where the (Shia) Hezbollah is at war with (Sunni) Saudi Arabia, and also any state with a significant Sunni population, Hezbollah stirs the pot in this centuries old, fratricidal conflict between Sunni and Shia.
There are no solutions to religious bigotry and it seems as if Obamas treaty with Iran was as much a holding position to balance the fears of Israel as to have any lasting hope of a solution in this troubled part of the world.
The eloquence of each participant and the perspective of four different views expressed this morning on the radio, on the perceived outcome of Trumps unilateral dumping of the treaty created by his antithesis, President Obama, was for me illuminating and fed into the confusion we westerners have for the conflicts in that part of the world.
Trumps threat to impose sanctions not only on Iran but on any nation doing business with Iran which includes France, Germany and the U.K. has resulted in a great deal of hyperbolic rage towards the Americans, as much because Trump, unaware of the sensitivities of diplomacy says he doesn't care for such niceties and would rather get the job done being more in thrall to Netanyahu the Israeli Prime Minister than to Macron Merkel or May.
The power of the American dollar, which lies in the vaults of most of the nations of the world as a source of economic stability and is at the core of Global economics, this Trojan horse to which we all pay homage is, when in the hands of 'wheeler dealer' such as Trump, a frightening weapon.
We will see what we will see. Perhaps this maverick will rewrite the history books of non diplomatic achievement since he seems to have no boundaries in his self belief for getting things done and we await his meeting with Kim Jung-un with great interest.
His non pragmatic approach is a break from the smoking mirrors of diplomatic intrigue where the general public lost faith in the political system because, as much as anything else, the name on the tin bore no resemblance to what was inside and all politicians became to be seen as charlatans.
I have been listening on the BBC World Service to a group of so called experts evaluating the outcome of Donald Trumps move to pull out from the Obama negotiated deal with Iran regarding Iran's termination of trying to attain nuclear weapons.
The dangers of relighting the fuse in the Middle East by imposing fresh sanctions in an effort to bring to heel a rogue state who's paramilitary excursions (through Hezbollah) are everywhere in, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Israel, or to maintain the status quo in the hope that more prosperity in Iran would swing the popular vote and make the state more compliant
The agreement signed by Obama allowed the funds to flow again to Iran from oil sales, funds which it was hoped would bring back some measure of prosperity but funds also which allowed Hezbollah to prosper.
The balancing act of preventing the growth of Iranian nuclear power which ostensibly is aimed at Israel, against the proliferation of guerrilla warfare in the surrounding states of the Middle East but also further afield is a delicate one. The mayhem in Yemen where the (Shia) Hezbollah is at war with (Sunni) Saudi Arabia, and also any state with a significant Sunni population, Hezbollah stirs the pot in this centuries old, fratricidal conflict between Sunni and Shia.
There are no solutions to religious bigotry and it seems as if Obamas treaty with Iran was as much a holding position to balance the fears of Israel as to have any lasting hope of a solution in this troubled part of the world.
The eloquence of each participant and the perspective of four different views expressed this morning on the radio, on the perceived outcome of Trumps unilateral dumping of the treaty created by his antithesis, President Obama, was for me illuminating and fed into the confusion we westerners have for the conflicts in that part of the world.
Trumps threat to impose sanctions not only on Iran but on any nation doing business with Iran which includes France, Germany and the U.K. has resulted in a great deal of hyperbolic rage towards the Americans, as much because Trump, unaware of the sensitivities of diplomacy says he doesn't care for such niceties and would rather get the job done being more in thrall to Netanyahu the Israeli Prime Minister than to Macron Merkel or May.
The power of the American dollar, which lies in the vaults of most of the nations of the world as a source of economic stability and is at the core of Global economics, this Trojan horse to which we all pay homage is, when in the hands of 'wheeler dealer' such as Trump, a frightening weapon.
We will see what we will see. Perhaps this maverick will rewrite the history books of non diplomatic achievement since he seems to have no boundaries in his self belief for getting things done and we await his meeting with Kim Jung-un with great interest.
His non pragmatic approach is a break from the smoking mirrors of diplomatic intrigue where the general public lost faith in the political system because, as much as anything else, the name on the tin bore no resemblance to what was inside and all politicians became to be seen as charlatans.
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