I know the usual refrain is "what if this was a Democratic president..." but actually this goes beyond that. This really is WHAT IF THIS WAS ANY PRESIDENT BUT TRUMP?
The "foreign policy" community, the blob, the bipartisan collection of arms dealers, former generals, spooks, ex spooks, journalist assets, Harvard educated State Department psychos, tough guy politicians, corrupt "think tanks," and all their easily manipulated (willing to be) journalists would be having an absolute shit fit. Ted Koppel would start a new nightly TV show.Since the signing of the interim agreement last week, the Americans have said that money will be released to Iran as the country hits certain benchmarks – that the US will unfreeze certain funds and give access to the international banking system and international markets.
But what has happened over the last 24-48 hours has been hugely significant because it is a reversal of US policy – sanctions on the Iranian oil industry.
For many, many years, the Iranians managed to sell the oil despite the sanctions, but at a huge discount. That’s because countries were concerned about being on the wrong side of US sanctions.
Now, Iran can sell the oil at full price, which will bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the Iranian economy. This is a huge change, but the Americans insist the Iranians still have to meet those benchmarks if other sanctions are to be lifted.
I know you don't have to hand it to Trump, but managing to pull off effectively surrendering to Iran without Lindsey Graham personally leading an armed coup against him requires skills of some sort.