Biden administration's stance on JCPOA - 'meet the new boss, same as the old boss'

By John Wight

(John Wight is an author and political commentator based in Scotland.)

No matter the regime in power in Washington, decency and honour remains a foreign land and truth but a bargaining chip in the casino of international power politics.

The sanctions imposed on the Iranian people by a rogue Trump administration that outdid itself in trying to make a virtue of international brigandage stand as one of the most pristine examples of the barbarism that passes for foreign policy in Washington.

These sanctions you would automatically think an incoming Biden administration would immediately have lifted prior to returning to the JCPOA were signed up to by an Obama administration in which the current president was vice president in 2015. You would think too, having pledged to reverse the damage to America’s international reputation as a country that keeps faith with its obligations and diplomatic agreements with other countries, that President Biden would do the aforementioned in a spirit of contrition and regret for the damage wrought to Iran’s economy and the welfare of its people due to said sanctions.

But, no, you’d be wrong.

At least that’s if the words of a senior US State Department official during a recent State Department briefing on the progress of the Iran nuclear talks in Vienna are to be believed. Despite claiming that the talks have been ‘constructive’, said official, responding to a question from a member of the press in attendance, stated that there is no such thing as a guarantee that a future administration would stick to a new deal with Iran and the other countries involved in the formulation of the JCPOA.

So there you have it; international agreements in Washington are not worth the paper they’re written on and, worse, sanctions that harm and kill the innocent are more easily upheld than diplomatic initiatives that protect and save them.

Barbarism delivered in a tailored suit is still barbarism, and one US president in four years kills and harms more innocent lives around the world than any number of Bin Ladens or Baghdadis. They make a desert and call it peace, the famed Roman historian Tacitus declared, and as it was then so it is now.

The issue at hand is not Iran’s but America’s compliance. The issue at hand is not whether Iran – a sovereign independent republic – has the right to develop its own nuclear energy. The issue at hand is one power arrogating to itself the right to dictate otherwise.

Surely by now the denizens of Washington understand that the Iranian people will not submit to coercion or threats or sanctions, no matter how intensely applied. Further still, what kind of world is it that allows Israel to engage in acts of nuclear terrorism against Iran in open violation of international law, yet is rewarded with aid by Washington rather than sanctions or even the most tepid of reprimands?

Breaking faith with international agreements is not coterminous with a world established on the basis of parity of esteem. It is a world reduced to the law of jungle, and in such a world strength lies with those who can endure the most, not those who can inflict the most.

Here, the words of the great Persian poet, Saadi, have never been more germane:

“All humans are members of one frame

Since all, at first, from the same essence came.

When time afflicts a limb with pain

The other limbs cannot at rest remain.

If thou feel not for other’s misery

A human being is no name for thee.”

The lack of common decency and humanity which currently informs US foreign policy is the product of dominant cultural values rooted in violence, aggression and base cruelty. The Native American Indians entered into countless agreements with the European settlers who invaded and expropriated their land, and every single one of them was broken. Former slaves were promised 40 acres and a mule and neither was forthcoming.

Twas ever thus, and ever thus shall be.

Any culture or civilization that holds itself up as superior to every other is a culture antithetical to human progress. When American officials sit opposite their Iranian counterparts, whether directly or indirectly, they do not do so as equals, they do so with a colonial mind, addressing one of their subjects.

Until this malign and mendacious mentality changes, until there is a revolution of values in the heart of this hegemonic beast, no country can afford to have faith in its promises, pledges or pronouncements. This is clear.

Also clear is the unalloyed fact that America’s allies are in truth client states, revolving around Washington’s whims and fancies like planets revolving around the sun, seeking its light and favour and lacking the strength to make a stand on moral and ethical principles when they involve the double standards that drive US actions on the global stage.

Strength confers more responsibilities not more rights, and until the Biden administration puts flesh on the bones of its pledge to reverse four years of Trumpian chaos, it will remain a case of ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss.’

^{(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)}

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