WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2020) US President Donald Trump's carefully chosen comments on Iran in the State of the Union speech may indicate he is secretly exploring a deal with Tehran, former UK Ambassador Peter Ford told Sputnik.
On Tuesday, Trump during his state of the union address before Congress said the United States could help Iran's economy unless Tehran stays too proud. The Trump administration after exiting the nuclear deal in 2018 imposed several rounds of draconian sanctions on Iran.
"Trump's words on Iran are carefully and interestingly chosen... He avoids making more threats and says nothing inconsistent with rumored behind the scenes efforts to strike a deal with Iran," Ford, a former UK ambassador to Syria, said.
Tensions between the United States and Iran soared last month after Trump authorized the assassination by drone of Iran's Qods Force Commander Major General Qasem Solomeini on a visit to Baghdad.
Trump's refusal to mention Syria, Ford added, also held open the possibility that he might authorize a further draw-down of US forces in that country.
But Trump was mistaken in claiming that the United States was increasingly respected around the world because of his leadership, Ford pointed out.
"If Trump thinks that America under his leadership is more respected in the world then he is sipping from the same Kool Aid he doles out to his base in this Address. More deplored, more reviled, more feared as the deranged are feared, but not respected," he said. "Trump boasts about this 'exceptional republic', reminding us that this country is as narcissistic in its self-adoration as its current President.
Ford added that in this vain man American exceptionalism has found "its best incarnation in all its ugly vaingloriousness."
Trump was also grossly mistaken in taking seriously his son-in-law Jared Kushner's almost universally rejected "peace plan" for the Arab-Israeli conflict, Ford continued.
"He boasts about his plan for Israel and the Palestinians when in fact it is a laughing stock, roundly rejected everywhere outside Israel," he said.
