With the United States’
Citizens feel sting of isolation after N. Korea summit
apparent detente with North Korea, Iran struggles with being the last of an “axis of evil.”
TEHRAN, Iran — Iraq helped fight Islamic State and became a strategic U.S. partner in the Middle East. North Korea, of course, has just refreshed relations with the U.S., or at least with President Donald Trump, after a high-profile handshake and vague talk of denuclearization.
That leaves Iran, the other member of the socalled axis of evil, a term former President George W. Bush famously used in 2002 to describe inveterate adversaries of the United States.
The Singapore summit between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was short on substance and could amount to nothing, analysts say. Yet, in Tehran, Trump’s enthusiastic outreach to a rogue nation with a history of human rights and nonproliferation violations renewed accusations of U.S. hypocrisy.
Only weeks ago Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — despite assurances from international inspectors that the Islamic Republic was living up to its commitments — and began to reinstate harsh U.S. economic sanctions. Among the White House’s complaints were Tehran’s continued ballistic missile tests and support for Hezbollah and other anti-American militant groups.
As Trump remakes U.S. foreign policy — picking fights with traditional allies like Canada and Mexico while going softer on countries like Russia — many wonder about the future of ties with Iran. Its 80 million people have been fed a steady diet of anti-Americanism since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but many Iranians blame the theocracy for pursuing reckless policies that have antagonized the United States and made life harder for ordinary people.
The U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement and the sanctions have further bruised Iran’s already shaky economy.
Mostafa Bromandi, the 62-year-old owner of a printing house who’s laid off much of his staff over the past three years, said the threat of renewed sanctions had sent prices soaring and pushed his business toward collapse.
“There are two options for our country as the last of the ‘axis of evil’: either sit for serious and open talks with Trump and bury the hatchet or watch the implosion sooner or later,” Bromandi said.
“Perhaps I’m a wishful thinker, but I hope there are some secret talks between Iran and America somewhere or somehow. Otherwise we are doomed.”
Many in Tehran wrung their hands as they watched the North Korean flag share a stage with the Stars and Stripes, and read about Trump touting the socalled hermit kingdom’s tourism potential.
Fresh from his North Korean photo-op, Trump told reporters that after the sanctions resume he would consider negotiating a “real deal” with Iran — “but right now it’s too soon to do that.”
“People in Iran are in their right mind to be talking about double standards,” said Alex Vatanka, an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington. “Why can North Korea pull out of the NPT (nuclear nonproliferation treaty) and test nuclear reactors, whereas Iran, which signed on to the toughest nuclear inspections regime, has the rug pulled out from underneath its feet?”
Vatanka said the fundamental question about Iran’s relationship with the United States is whether the hard-line clerical establishment that runs the Islamic Republic sincerely seeks a diplomatic rapprochement.
While President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who campaigned on ending Iran’s diplomatic isolation, advocated for the agreement under which Iran ceased its nuclear-related activities in exchange for relief from sanctions, Iranian conservatives sought to undermine the deal at every opportunity.
The hard-line judiciary imprisoned dual citizens while the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which runs Iran’s overseas military operations, expanded its support for progovernment militias in Syria and anti-Saudi rebels in Yemen, directly opposing U.S. interests.
Those policies, more than Iran’s adherence to the terms of the nuclear deal, were what drove the Trump administration to criticize Iran’s belligerent behavior and withdraw from the agreement.
Special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim reported from Tehran and the Los Angeles Times’ Shashank Bengali from Mumbai, India.