Iran’s Top Diplomat Mocks Donald Trump’s Negotiating Skills After Abrupt End To North Korea Summit And No Deal
It wasn’t a surprise to Iran’s top diplomat to see that Donald Trump ended his high-stakes summit with North Korea without any kind of a deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lashed out at Trump this week after the American president failed to strike a deal on North Korea dismantling its nuclear weapon program. As Newsweek noted, Zarif mocked Trump’s negotiating style and noted that Trump made a similar mistake when he tore up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal.
“President Trump should’ve now realized that pageantries, photo-ops & flip-flops don’t make for serious diplomacy. It took 10yrs of posturing plus two years-literally thousands of hours-of negotiations to hammer out every word of the 150 page JCPOA,” Zarif tweeted.
“You’ll never get a better deal,” Zarif added.
Trump had been widely criticized for backing out of the Iran deal, with critics saying it was shortsighted, and others believing that Trump simply wanted to spite Barack Obama, who was one of the driving forces behind striking the original deal.
Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive officer of the non-partisan think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, weighed in on the matter when Trump backed out of the Iran deal, in an episode of the Foreign Podicy podcast. Dubowitz argued that Trump could have tried to negotiate a new agreement with America’s allies before pulling out entirely.
My latest @PostOpinions column: Trump’s denuclearization strategies for Iran and North Korea are totally opposite. Why? https://t.co/iUeKsbwsIv
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) March 2, 2019
Trump was also criticized this week for ending the North Korea summit with no kind of deal, and then later appearing to praise dictator Kim Jong-Un. As The New York Times noted, Trump has grown “increasingly effusive” toward Kim since taking office. This week, he Trump explained that he believed Kim’s claim that he had no idea how American captive Otto Warmbier was left on the brink of death while in North Korean custody.
That led the deceased student’s family to speak out against Trump.
“We have been respectful during this summit process,” the Warmbiers said in a statement. “Now we must speak out. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.”
Donald Trump has painted the abrupt end to the North Korea summit as just another step in negotiations, saying he is confident that the two sides will be able to re-engage and reach a deal for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear operations and halt weapons testing.
