{"id":220323,"date":"2019-06-25T22:06:51","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T02:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=220323"},"modified":"2019-06-25T22:06:51","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T02:06:51","slug":"new-pentagon-chief-seeks-europes-help-for-trumps-iran-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/25\/new-pentagon-chief-seeks-europes-help-for-trumps-iran-view\/","title":{"rendered":"New Pentagon chief seeks Europe’s help for Trump’s Iran view"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Speaking to reporters travelling with him to a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, Mark Esper said he wants to help form a broader coalition to deter Iran and compel its leaders to return to the negotiating table for nuclear talks. (File Photo By Monica King – Dr. Mark T. Esper, Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BRUSSELS \u2014 The Trump administration aims to persuade allies the confrontation with Iran, which threatened to worsen into a deadly shooting war last week, is \u201cnot Iran versus the United States\u201d but rather a global challenge requiring global diplomacy, the new acting Pentagon chief said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters travelling with him to a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, Mark Esper said he wants to help form a broader coalition to deter Iran and compel its leaders to return to the negotiating table for nuclear talks.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States last year from an international deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and then reinstated harsh economic sanctions, says he wants to work out an even more restrictive deal with Tehran. Iran, however, denounced the latest U.S. sanctions as \u201cidiotic\u201d and an obstacle to talks.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Trump responded in kind, lashing Iran’s leaders for rejecting his overtures and vowing that \u201cany attack by Iran on anything American\u201d would be answered with overwhelming U.S. military force that \u201cin some areas\u201d would mean \u201cobliteration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting Defence Secretary Esper’s arrival in Europe was meant to reinforce a message delivered this week by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who conferred with leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about countering any military threat from Iran by building a broad coalition that includes Asian and European countries. Officials said they hope this will include a wider international effort to monitor shipping in the Persian Gulf to deter Iranian attacks.<\/p>\n

Esper faces a tall order, however. His first major appearance in his new job will be Wednesday at NATO, the alliance that Trump has frequently bashed as a collection of freeloaders.<\/p>\n

And European leaders have appeared cool to the U.S. approach to Iran. Europe wants more emphasis on minimizing the chances of war, especially after the events of last week when Trump approved military retaliation for the shooting down of an American military drone aircraft but withdrew the order at the last minute. Since then, the administration has publicly emphasized its goal of \u201cinternationalizing\u201d the Iran crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not Iran versus the United States. This is Iran certainly versus the region, and arguably the broader global environment,\u201d said Esper, who took over Monday as acting secretary, replacing Patrick Shanahan, who resigned last week.<\/p>\n

Esper said his goal is, first, for allies to express outrage at Iran’s activities, which the U.S. says include the drone shootdown and bombings of several tanker ships in the Gulf of Oman. Second, he said he wants allies to support \u201cany range of activities\u201d to help deter conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the reason why we need to internationalize this issue and have our allies and partners work with us to get Iran to come back to the negotiating table and talk about the way ahead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Esper said discussions about creating a maritime coalition to secure freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf are still in the early stages. It’s too early, he said, to start \u201ccounting ships\u201d and which allies have agreed to participate.<\/p>\n

Germany, France and Britain, as well as Russia and China, remain part of the nuclear deal that Trump abandoned last year. The 2015 agreement aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.<\/p>\n

Because of the unusual circumstance of being an acting defence secretary — replacing Shanahan, who also had not been confirmed by the Senate — Esper faces the added challenge in Brussels of assuring his international counterparts and military commanders in the region that the U.S. military is in stable and capable hands.<\/p>\n

Esper, 55, was a top lobbyist for the defence contractor Raytheon Co. before becoming Army secretary in November 2017. A West Point classmate of Pompeo, Esper served in the 1991 Gulf War with the 101st Airborne Division and retired from the Army in 2007 after 10 years on active duty and 11 in the National Guard and Army Reserve.<\/p>\n

This is by far the longest period the Pentagon has ever gone without a Senate-confirmed secretary. Trump’s first defence chief, Jim Mattis, resigned in December in protest of Trump’s policies and what the retired four-star Marine general considered Trump’s destructive approach to allies.<\/p>\n

The two-day NATO meeting of defence ministers will include talks on many of the most worrisome international security topics: possible war with Iran; the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan; the continued fight against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, and tensions with Russia. Esper, who until Sunday evening had been serving as the civilian leader of the U.S. Army, may be familiar with many of the issues, but to European defence ministers he is a relative unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cExpectations are really low. They are not going to expect him to be able to speak authoritatively for the president and go beyond what’s in his talking points,\u201d said Derek Chollet, who served in senior positions at the White House, State Department and Pentagon during the Obama administration. On the other hand, the Brussels gathering allows Esper to meet many of his key counterparts in a short period of time, \u201csort of like speed dating,\u201d Chollet said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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