White House 2020 Hopefuls Slam Trump on Iran

EghtesadOnline: Two Democrats with US military experience who are vying for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination shifted the focus of the race to foreign policy on Sunday, criticizing Republican President Donald Trump for escalating tensions with Iran, which could lead to war.

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21 May 2019

The relationship between Washington and Tehran has become increasingly strained in recent weeks, raising concerns about a potential US-Iran conflict.

Trump and hawkish foreign policy advisers like National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo want Tehran to give up its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Trump has tightened economic sanctions against Iran, aimed at compelling its leaders into negotiations. Pompeo last year outlined a list of demands for Iran that critics said showed he was pushing for regime change, according to Financial Tribune.

In response, Iran has heightened its defense readiness, lest it be caught off-guard. The country has declared that it is not going to launch a war, but is fully ready to fend off one.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard, one of 24 Democrats vying for the White House nomination, said on ABC that Trump was “leading us down this dangerous path toward a war with Iran”.

“He says he doesn’t want it, but the actions of him and his administration, people like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, tell us a very different story. They are setting the stage for a war with Iran that would prove to be far more costly, far more devastating and dangerous than anything that we saw in the Iraq war,” Gabbard said, Reuters reported.

Trump has said he is not pushing for war with Iran. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he promised to stay out of overseas conflicts, saying the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were too costly.

In May 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from a multinational deal with Iran negotiated by the previous US administration that reduced economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for scaling back its nuclear program. Trump criticized the deal as weak, saying he would negotiate a stronger one.

Gabbard, 38, who enlisted in the US Army National Guard after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and was twice deployed to the Middle East, has said she is running for president to end regime-change wars, though she currently trails most of her 2020 opponents in opinion polls.

Bolton’s Agenda

Another White House hopeful, Representative Seth Moulton, a 40-year-old former US Marine Corps officer who did four tours in Iraq, told ABC that if the Trump administration sends additional troops to the Persian Gulf it could “drag us into war”.

“Make no mistake, this is exactly what John Bolton wants to have happen,” said Moulton, who also trails in 2020 opinion polls. “The world is so dangerous when you have a weak commander in chief in the president of the United States.”

Moulton counts as a mentor former vice president, Joe Biden, who currently leads the 2020 Democratic field in support.

Asked why Democratic primary voters should back him over his mentor, Moulton said, “I think it’s time for the generation that fought in Iraq and Afghanistan to take over for the generation that sent us there.”

Gabbard resigned her post at the Democratic National Committee in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was the nominee because she said the former secretary of state’s foreign policy positions were too hawkish.

Gabbard was asked by ABC if that also applied to Biden, as both he and Clinton served in the Obama administration.

“We’ll see what vice president Biden’s foreign policy vision is for this country. We may agree on some issues, disagree on others,” Gabbard said.