When Donald Trump illegally pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, he promised to secure a better arrangement through a policy of “maximum pressure” on the West Asian country. He did not get a better deal. Instead, Iran wrested back its bargaining chip by further increasing its enrichment of uranium.
Instead of breaking Iran, US sanctions pushed it to reorient its trade and diplomatic relations. It turned to its neighbors, like Saudi Arabia, and looked east to China and Russia. Iran joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, two massive international organizations whose goal is to counterbalance the American-led unipolar world. Iran also signed a 25-year strategic and economic partnership with China, as well as a Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Russia.
Iran didn’t capitulate to America: Iran turned away from America.
Engaging the US did not work for Iran: Trump unilaterally and illegally withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear agreement. Engaging the US did not work for Canada: they did everything the Trump administration asked for, virtually eliminating the fentanyl crossing the border; yet they will now feel the harsh pain of 25 percent tariffs.
Perhaps, with an emerging multipolar world awaiting them, America’s friends, like Canada, Mexico and the EU, fresh off a failure to accommodate the US in a quest for a better deal, can learn a lesson from America’s enemies.