Newsweek - USA (2019-06-21)

14 NEWSWEEK.COM JUNE 28, 2019

once again, there is a rumor

of war in the Middle East.

A year after President Donald

Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear

accord between Iran and six world

powers, he has dramatically upped

the stakes in his aggressive campaign

of economic warfare against the

Islamic Republic.

Since last year’s withdrawal,

Trump’s reimposition of sanctions

Teetering on the Brink

President Trump and Iranian leaders insist they don’t want war.

But with a build-up of military might on both sides and increasing

economic pressure from the U.S., tensions remain high

already has reduced Iran’s 2 million

barrels per day oil sales by half, send-

ing the country’s economy into a tail-

spin. Now, exercising a policy he calls

“maximum pressure,” Trump has tar-

geted Iran’s remaining

exports by ending the

sanctions waivers he

previously had granted

to eight of Tehran’s big-

gest customers. Trump’s

BY

JONATHAN BRODER

@BroderJonathan

goal: to drive Iran into penury and

force Tehran’s leaders to accept a

new nuclear deal, this time on terms

that Trump and his lieutenants insist

would be far more favorable to the

United States and its regional allies.

“We are going to zero,” Secretary of

State Mike Pompeo declared recently,

referring to Iran’s oil exports. “How

long we remain there, at zero, depends

solely on the Islamic Republic of

Iran’s senior leaders. We’ve made our

demands very clear to the ayatollah

and his cronies.”

Both Trump and Iranian leaders

insist they don’t want to go to war.

But ever since Trump tightened sanc-

tions last month, the Middle East has

seen a major spike in tensions: omi-

nous signs of Iranian military moves

against American forces in the region;

a rapid buildup of U.S. military might

just off the Iranian coast; attacks by

suspected Iranian saboteurs on Arab

oil tankers; and a drone attack on

a Saudi pipeline by Yemen’s Irani-

an-aligned Houthi tribesmen.

Then, just as suddenly, both Wash-

ington and Tehran took a grudging

step back from the brink of hostil-

ities earlier this month as Pompeo

declared the United States was pre-

pared to talk to Iran without precon-

ditions. Iranian President Hassan

Rouhani responded by saying talks

were possible, as long as Washington

treated Tehran with “respect.”

“In the last three weeks, you’ve seen

a serious escalation in which both the

Iranians and the Americans have sig-

naled that each has a way to deter the

other,” Aaron David Miller, a former

Middle East adviser to six secretar-

ies of State, told Newsweek. But even

TALKING HEADS Iranian president

Hassan Rouhani says he wants respect

from the U.S., while Donald Trump last

month insisted that Iran poses no threat.

MIDDLE EAST