TEHRAN, October 24 - Former US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Monday said he is concerned that countries will not trust the word of the United States following President Trump’s announcement he would not re-certify the multilateral Iran nuclear deal.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - “In foreign policy, in many ways, your word counts for a lot and when you tell someone you’re going to do something, if you fail to stick to your word, it sends a clear message to others ... that you can not trust America as a partner,” Panetta said during a Hudson Institute forum in Washington, according to Hill.
Trump earlier this month announced that the Iran nuclear deal was not in the United States' national security interests and that he would not certify it, though he stopped short of withdrawing from the agreement.
Panetta said that while he believes there are flaws with the agreement, Iran is technically abiding by it by not developing a nucle aractivity.
“I think as a result of that we ought to continue to enforce that agreement,” he said.
Panetta also expressed concern that the issue has now been thrown to lawmakers as “Congress is having a hard time sometimes finding its way to the bathroom much less dealing with issues that involve an area ... far better for the administration, for the president to deal with.”
“Congress should hopefully develop a way to increase the enforcement of that agreement ... but in the end, to make clear that we’re going to continue to enforce that agreement,” he urged.
Enforcing that agreement gives the United States “the opportunity to work with our allies and try to apply both diplomatic and economic sanctions on Iran so that they will ultimately come to the table and negotiate on these other issues,” Panetta argued.
He continued, “That’s not going to be easy, under any circumstances, but the worst thing you can do is break your word.”
Source: MNA
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